The Quadratic Equation Never Did Me Any Good
by FlyingHampsterOfDoom
Summary: She was good with words, and she was good with puzzles. Turns out both were needed to try and befriend one Zach Addy. Season 1.
1. Day 1

**OK, I've decided to give this a bit of a test run. Bear with me- I'm setting up the original character and her interactions with everyone before I get into any of the actual episodes. It's starting in Season One, and as of right now, I can tell you this much about my story:**

The episodes will most definitely be written out of order. Because I feel like doing it like that.

**The Pilot Episode and The Man In The Bear have already happened. **

**Zach reconstructed his first skull before The Man In The S.U.V., but that particular episode has not happened yet.**

**In fact, most of the episodes will not occur until after The Man In The Fallout Shelter. Sorry if it's unclear, but you can pretty much assume this story is AU because of how skewed the timeline is.**

**I AM NOT CURRENTLY WRITING TO ANY OF THE EPISODES- The episodes will have their own chapter titles, so you will know when I do start writing them. **

**Man, that was long. Ok. Now on to the disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own.**

Day One

_Blue and red make purple. Red and yellow make orange. Yellow and blue make green. Green and blue make turquoise… _Her hand gripped the arm rest tighter, and she gritted her teeth together, realizing that she was failing horribly at distracting herself.

The plane dipped smoothly to the right, and she stifled a gasp as her stomach left her body behind. Her eyes darted to the window, and she made herself relax one limb at a time as the lights of nighttime DC streamed lazily beneath her.

This part, she acknowledged, was beautiful. The stars above clear as ever, motionless as far as she was concerned; and the city lights below that squinted and wavered about in their many colors.

Her favorite ones were the cars, and DC had a hell of a lot of them.

The plane landed without incident, _thank God_, she thought to herself. There had been one time, on one of her numerous flights into Salt Lake, that the pilot had suddenly leaned to one side and jerked the plane back into position at the last minute. Ever since, she'd had an uncontrollable fear of landing.

Her friends had made questionable jokes about alcohol and doing barrel rolls that she had found funny enough to laugh at; but even with their attempts at making light of her flying fiasco, she had still felt adrenaline coursing through her for hours after checking into her hotel.

Today's flight had been uneventful, not even light turbulence, and she was miles beyond thankful. Her normal flights were only an hour or two long, but this one was all the way across the country and so had taken her roughly five hours (not including the two hour delay before take off); she wasn't certain she would have been able to handle anything going even slightly awry without the need for drinks. Which was inadvisable. She was alone today. In a brand new city. Being plastered was definitely inadvisable.

For such a large city the airport was dead; she'd thought it would be bustling with people, even at two in the morning, but what did she know.

The conveyor belt kept pushing the same, sad luggage around- two red cases and one floral print. And none of them were hers.

"How, exactly, do you loose luggage on a flight that has no stops or connections? At an airport that has two other flights leaving at the same time?" She was mild when she asked at customer service, but even so, she felt a tad guilty- it wasn't like the lady behind the counter had personally lost her luggage.

"We will do our best to relocate your luggage, ma'am," she started at being called ma'am, she wasn't even twenty three yet, "if we could have some information in regards to contacting you? If your luggage does not show up you will be compensated for two hundred dollars," the information lady gave a smile, her bright red lipstick jarring against her pale skin.

With a sigh and a nod, she gave the lady her cell number and the address of her new apartment; she was just going to have to wear the same clothes to work in the morning.

The taxi ride to the apartment had been surprising, but only in the sense that the driver was no where near as terrifying as the ones in Philadelphia; she didn't know if she was disappointed or not, but either way it gave her more opportunity to study the city as it unfolded about her.

She was happy to have arrived at such an odd hour, it made her feel like she was getting to know the city personally; like it was showing itself to just her. Showing off parts of itself proudly, not unlike a child would show off school projects and drawings they pinned to the refrigerator. It brought a smile to her face, but still, she was undecided about how well she would like her year long stay.

The apartment was tiny, which wasn't a big deal since it was just her, but it also had a faint smell to it that she didn't want to try and identify. There was a leak in the kitchen that she knew she wouldn't even bother complaining about, it looked as if it had been there for a very long time. The walls were a faded yellow and cracked in the corners, and the couch that came with the apartment sagged in the middle.

Apparently, this was home. And the saddest part of the day was that the couch actually looked comfortable after such a long day.


	2. Day 2 Part 1

Day 2 Part 1

_Well, shit. _"Excuse me? I think I'm in the wrong section?"

It had started off as such a beautiful day, too; despite the need to wear the same clothing as yesterday, and despite the fact that the shuttle smelled like feet. Of course, she had to ruin everything by getting lost on her first day- horribly, horribly lost.

As in, she was in the science section. Well, it was all science, it was the bloody Jeffersonian. But she was supposed to be looking for the graphics area. Wherever the hell that was. She looked down at the email her mentor had sent her, and concluded that she most likely wasn't going to like the lady.

There were no clear instructions on where to meet her. Granted, misinformation was a two-way street, but she was just the damned intern; and she was also, apparently, a moron. She had no idea how big the Jeffersonian was.

"What are you looking for?" the curly-haired man she had stopped asked her, he held a small vial in his hand that looked like it was holding something moving. She really wanted to ask, but she was already late.

"Uhh… I'm looking for a… Cherryl Renniker- the graphics department?" she ventured uncertainly, looking down at her email to make sure she was saying the correct name. Her eyebrows scrunched together briefly before looking back up at the man in front of her.

"Graphics? Man, you're way off, how did you even end up over here? Ok, you're going to go to the end of the hall here and take a left. Keep going until you reach two double doors, go through them and then immediately to your right. You'll find a set of stairs, go up those, then go left. Keep going, you'll reach an area where you have to go either left or right- go right. You should find whoever you're looking for somewhere in there."

She panicked, there were a lot of directions in there, and she was already frazzled as it was. Her face slackened a little, and her hands fumbled with her messenger bag, hoping to find a pen. Maybe, if he was really nice, he would repeat that so she could write it down.

Apparently, he could tell how panicked she was, and he laughed a little. "Here, how about this. I have to go drop this guy off back at the lab; afterwards I'll show you where you need to be," he smiled at her in a way she normally would have found condescending, but seemed genuine coming from him, so she smiled back.

"Thank you so much. I'm normally horrible with directions, but apparently today I'm extra horrible. I don't even know how that's possible," she lamented. He laughed a little and then continued forward, towards his lab. She stopped herself from following; she didn't know what to do. He said _he_ had to go drop off the vial, and then after he would show her to the graphics department; did he want her to follow him or wait in the hallway? The thought of waiting in the hallway made her feel like a puppy, but the thought of just following after him made her feel presumptuous.

"Well, come on, the lab's on the way," he beckoned her forward, and she inwardly sighed in relief.

Now that she had a guide, she allowed herself to look around, and felt highly uncomfortable in her surroundings- the hall alone was opulent.

God, she was just a piddley little computer player who made pretty brochures and posters. And sometimes, when she got bored, website layouts. How in the hell had she gotten an internship at the Jeffersonian for her senior year?

"So what's your name?" the man beside her asked, startling her out of her thoughts.

"Oh. Shilloh…." She petered off uncomfortably, cleared her throat, then asked, "and you?" her eye twitched slightly in self-deprecation, but she refused to feel any worse about how shy she was. She was making an attempt, and that was good enough for her, damnit.

"Jack Hodgins. It's nice to meet you. So, this is your first day?" He asked as they made their way through a set of large doors, into an area that positively _glistened_ with science. It wasn't exactly an accurate description of the place, but it was the only one she could think of.

It was beautiful and large and made her feet still and her mouth gape, "yeah, got a bit lost so I'm about twenty minutes late," her voice was loud enough to carry over to him, but still held the soft-around-the-edges sound that so often accompanies awe, and he grinned over at her. She returned the grin with one that lit her entire face up, and scurried to catch up with him as he swiped a card, allowing him access to the lab itself.

She paused at the bottom of the stairs, biting her lip, and glanced at his back as he began to move away from the stairs; then immediately berated herself for assuming she'd be able to go look at all the shiny baubles and trinkets and... and... _science_. She tried not to feel too disappointed.

He turned to his left with his mouth open, only to frown and look back down the stairs. He tried not to laugh at the sight of her, scooted as close to the bottom step as she could get, her feet bouncing up and down to try and get a better view of what was happening up top. Shaking his head, he headed back down the stairs, swiped his card again, and ushered her through.

"What department is this?" She asked excitedly, trying her best to not skip steps in an attempt to reach the platform sooner.

"The forensic anthropology section. Mostly we identify the remains of people who have been dead for a long time, but we also work with the FBI on quite a few cases," he smiled when she grinned up at him and opened her mouth to ask another question.

"Hodgins, were you able to find the specimen?" a contradictory voice- somehow both harsh and warm- interrupted whatever Shilloh was about to say.

"Yes I was, Dr. Brennan," he held up the vial, which she could now see did indeed hold something moving- it looked like a small beetle. "I'll be able to set up a proper cross-reference with this to determine if what happened to the other specimens we found was indeed a normal occurrence." He moved to set the vial down at his station, but was stopped by another question.

"I'm sorry, we haven't been introduced- who is this you've brought to the lab, Hodgins?" Brennan directed at him, her eyes on Shilloh, who looked mildly uncomfortable.

"Hello. My name is Shilloh Phillips; Mr. Hodgins was going to escort me to the graphics department, as I'm afraid I'm terribly lost. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Dr. Brennan," she smiled up at Brennan, her hand extended awkwardly but firmly. When the older woman shook it, there was no judgment in her eyes, which made Shilloh instantly feel better about the entire situation, non-drama as it was.

"It is nice to have met you as well. Hodgins, your assistance on the case can wait another five minutes, I will see you when you get back from wherever the graphics department is," with a brief nod of her head, she lightly smiled at Shilloh and then headed out the same way she had come in.

"She is intimidating," Shilloh confided to Hodgins once they were back in the hallway, her child-like face looking up at him with open curiosity.

He laughed again, something she supposed he did a lot, and it seemed to suite him, "yeah, but she doesn't do it intentionally. You surprised me with your sophisticated talk back there, by the way," he added as they pushed their way through the double doors and headed right.

Scrunching her eyebrows and scowling good-naturedly, she retorted, "why? Because I'm blonde and you're surprised that anything above a fifth-grade reading comprehension or the three-clap test could pass my lips?"

"The three-clap test? What the hell is that?" He laughed; she was fun once she forgot that she was supposed to be polite and shy around someone.

"You know- you clap along with the syllables in a word, and how many claps you do is how many syllables there are. You learn it in like, first grade? Supposedly, the more claps a word has, the smarter you sound when you say it. Though you look like an idiot doing the clap test on really long words, so I wouldn't try it out in public if I was you. Lots of awkward questions," she smiled up at him again and then groaned as they came up to the stairs.

"There's a lot of stairs here. I hate stairs," with a mildly irritated huff, she trailed up after him and he once again laughed down at her, skipping steps in an attempt to force her to hurry up after him. "Also, there is no way I am ever going to remember any other way to get here from now on. I'm going to have to walk by your lab every day to get here- just future warning so you don't think I'm stalking you or anything," her voice was dead serious, and he shook his head at how hopeless she was with directions- he hadn't entirely believed her when she had first told him so.

"Duly noted. From here all you have to do it turn right at the end of the hall. Good luck, make nice with the other kids, and if you don't want to sit by yourself during lunch you can stop by the lab," he waved goodbye as he skipped back down the steps.


	3. Day 2 Part 2

Day 2 Part 2

Cherryl Renniker, as it turned out, was a very impatient woman. A very impatient woman who would not listen to excuses, was very unhappy with Shilloh's clothing choice, and decided to throw an arm load of work onto her new intern right away.

And it wasn't the grunt work, either- none of that, 'touch up the skin tone, edit out that bug, fix the sky,' crap. Nor was it, 'type this up and make sure it all fits properly.' It was, 'we have this brochure due in two weeks, here's all the files. Do it and have it ready for print next Monday.'

She was completely overwhelmed already, she only worked here twenty five hours as an intern, she wasn't supposed to be doing an actual full-time job workload; she was supposed to be helping her mentor with _her_ workload. With a heavy sigh she reminded herself how good it would look on an application. Sure, the Jeffersonian wasn't the Mecca of graphic design and advertising, but it was still the Jeffersonian.

Cherryl Renniker, apparently, was also the type of woman to dump a large work load onto a new intern, and then disappear.

With a heavy sigh, she grabbed her lunch and made her way out of her work station, in an attempt to find the cafeteria. After ten minutes she decided to just double back and eat at her desk, she only had thirty minutes left and she was too hungry to try and spend her break looking for a place she wouldn't even feel comfortable in.

She conveniently passed the forensic lab on her way back, and decided- what the hell- she might as well try and make some friends, right?

Standing and the bottom of the steps, she called out, "knock knock?" hoping Hodgins would be the one who would hear her and let her up. A very tall male with floppy brown hair looked down at her from the top of the steps, his expression quizzical.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

She bit her lip, and made her way to the top of the stairs, careful not to walk beyond the key swipe. "Yes, I met Hodgins earlier. It's... Uh… It's my first day here, and I didn't know where the cafeteria was and I didn't know anyone I could eat with and I decided, hey, maybe I could eat here, since this place is pretty cool, and it would be nice to get away from my work for a while, and, and. I'm sorry. I'm rambling," she took a deep breath in, forcing herself to not look down at her feet.

"Oh. Hodgins is not here right now," he kept looking at her, and it was starting to make her feel uncomfortable.

"Oh," she couldn't think of anything else to say for a minute, so she shifted her lunch to her other hand, glanced down, then straightened her back and smiled up at him. "Hello, my name is Shilloh Phillips. And if you wouldn't think it too forward of me, would you like to have lunch together? I'm new in town and don't really feel like eating by myself," she continued to smile, her heart beating in her chest. God, she had never felt so awkward and moronic in her life. _If you wouldn't think it too forward of me_? Who the hell talks like that?

"Hey! Came by for lunch did you?" Hodgins appeared from somewhere- so far this entire lab set up seemed like nothing but magic to her. Her smile went from awkward to relieved, and she nodded.

"Yeah, I couldn't find the cafeteria, and on my way back to my work station I passed the lab- figured I'd stop by and see if I could bug you for a bit," she explained as Hodgins swiped his card. "I ran into.. uh… him?" She paused, not knowing the young man's name, "first, and invited him to lunch instead. So if you're not the jealous type we can maybe all have lunch? Or I could, I don't know, sit quietly in a corner while you work," she looked so hopeful that he almost laughed at her again.

"My name is Zach," Zach interrupted with his usual timing, causing both Hodgins and Shilloh to turn to him, "and while I do not know what Hodgins' predisposition for jealousy has to do with eating lunch, I am willing to inform you that he is not normally the type of male to exhibit such symptoms."

Hodgins let out a little groan at his friend's general ineptitude, and made a mental note to inform him of what the joke was later.

Shilloh, however, grinned at Zach, nodded sagely, and announced, "good, I hate eating with jealous people, they are such bores personality wise," she glanced at Hodgins, who momentarily bristled, thinking she was making fun of Zach, but he saw that she was merely trying to subtly ask him if that was an ok response. Apparently she understood Zach would require some extra care when speaking.

With a brief nod, Hodgins announced that the "usual spot" was the best choice, and Shilloh joked that he was just trying to impress her- usual spot indeed.

The usual spot wound up impressing her after all, though- she gushed about being able to see the entire lab from all the way up there, and how entirely comfortable the couches were.

They were half way through their lunches when Zach looked at her, and blurted without any form of preamble, "where did you get that scar?"

Hodgins choked on his food, and so wasn't able to scold him like he normally would have; Shilloh, however, didn't look fazed at all.

"Cancer," and continued eating, picking bits of tomato out of her store-bought sandwich. "Been in remission for three years, but the scar from the port they put in hasn't gotten any better" She glanced up questioningly when she noticed Hodgins was choking on his lunch.

With one last cough, he turned to Zach, "that's not normally something you bring up, especially to someone you barely know," he pointed out, feeling embarrassed for his friend despite how well Shilloh seemed to have taken it.

Zach looked confused for a minute, but seemed to accept that he had said something wrong, and addressed Shilloh, "I apologize for saying anything that may have caused you discomfort- it was not my intention."

She laughed, then, which really confused both men. "Zachs, Hodgins, it's ok. I get asked that a lot- mostly I make up ridiculous and outlandish stories, since most people don't really want to hear the truth, it makes them uncomfortable. But I don't want to lie to people I'm probably going to see around the place a lot."

"Stories? What sorts of stories?" Hodgins couldn't keep the smile out of his voice.

"Well, my all time favorite one is 'don't ever run with scissors, kid,'" she said, attempting a straight face. Hodgins laughed, and they had to explain to Zach why they both thought it was funny before he smiled softly.

Zach wound up finishing lunch first, and left to hopefully identify a murder weapon, at least, that's what Shilloh thought he mumbled as he departed their group.

"Hey, I'm sorry about Zach. He's really smart, but he doesn't quite get the whole, human interaction, thing," Hodgins broke the silence that fell, and Shilloh looked over to him.

"Oh, there's nothing to be sorry about, really. It doesn't make me uncomfortable or anything, I was just a bit surprised at first. It's easy to work around, and he's sweet, so it's not like he gives off that weirdo-on-the-bus vibe or anything," she frowned deeply for a second, "and I really hope that didn't sound like I was insulting him, because I was trying to say he _wasn't_ a creeper, and therefore there wasn't anything weird about him, thus no reason for you to apologize and oh God I'm digging myself in deeper aren't I?" She looked up at him, afraid he would be mad at her for saying something mean about his friend.

He was actually smiling at her, "no, no, I got what you were saying the first time. He's not a creeper on a bus. He's just too smart for his own good. Also, nice failed attempt at logic at the end, there. If, then, therefore? Nice."

"Yeah, well, I did take intro to logic at the community college several years ago. Good to know some of it stuck, yeah? Anyway, I need to head back, thanks for eating lunch with me, and for not thinking I'm a crazy stalker or anything," she smiled as she threw away part of her sandwich, making her way back down the stairs with him and towards the lab exit.

"Well, I _do_ think you're a crazy stalker, but you're adorable so I'm letting it slide; stop by for lunch tomorrow- the socialization will do your stalker self some good," he pushed her towards the stairs, smirking at her muffled, 'hey!'

She waved to both him and Zach before she left the lab completely, and she felt good for the first time that day- hopefully, with any amount of luck, she would have some friendly acquaintances out of the entire fiasco that was this internship thus far.

**OOO**

She had to buy some blouses before heading back to her apartment that night, which she was not looking forward to. She barely had enough money to buy food, which she supposed she'd have to do tonight as well.

She also had to buy some high heels. Cherryl had made some not-so-subtle references about proper work attire, and they had all seemed to include heels, which she had no idea how to walk in. This was going to be the most interesting nine months of her life to date, and hopefully none of that interest included her breaking her ankle.

Luckily she was able to find a clothing store and a food store several streets down from her apartment, and so didn't have to spend all night wandering around on tired feet. She decided to pick up some sheets for the couch, too; she'd slept on it the night before, but thinking about sleeping on it without sheets now, it made her feel kind of queasy.

She managed to get all of her bags into her apartment without having to make two trips up the stairs, which she was thankful for- the stairs kind of scared her, she was afraid she was going to slip and get her leg caught in the gap between steps.

Well, all that was left now was to put everything away. And then sit quietly, bored stiff in her tiny little apartment that had no form of entertainment whatsoever. She'd known her mother would be right; it was entirely a terrible idea to come over to DC with next to no money and attempt to live off of an internship that paid next to nothing. But she'd had to get out of the house. And it was a great opportunity. One she simply couldn't afford to look past.

With one final heavy sigh for the day, she made up her bed on the sagging couch, set her cell phone's alarm, and tried to fall asleep at an hour that was so ungodly early she felt old for even trying.


	4. Day 3 Part 1

Day 3 Part 1

"Ugh…. Hodgins? Zachs? Anyone up there?" She clomped along clumsily in her heels- they weren't high, barely half an inch (of which Cherryl had scoffed at, and given her an extra assignment on top of the brochure. Apparently she'd have to start wearing higher heels). Even still, she felt awkward in them and grabbed onto the railing as she tiredly pulled herself up the stairs.

"I have come to annoy you and possibly steal part of your lunch," she called again, and this time Hodgins' head appeared, smiling down at her and swiping his card to grant her access to the rest of the lab.

"Well the annoy part I understand, but stealing lunches? That's rude," he said, turning away from her, back towards the metal table. Today it had bones on it, and she was suddenly no longer hungry or thinking of her forgotten lunch back at the apartment.

She was entirely too excited.

"No, I forgot my sandwich at the apartment; so not rude, just hungry- what's all this then?" She asked, scooting closer to the table, careful not to touch anything. Zach glanced up at her from the other side, and Hodgins frowned momentarily.

"Sorry, forgot to warn you- I'm so used to it that I sometimes forget others aren't," he seemed contrite, but Shilloh just laughed it off.

"Please. It's all fascinating- as long as I don't have to smell anything, we're good. So, like I asked earlier, what's-" she cut herself off when she began to wobble slightly. Scrunching her nose, she slipped off her shoes and kicked them to an unused corner, before turning back around. "What's all this about, then?"

Hodgins was laughing at her, which she couldn't understand, so she scrunched her eyebrows at him, but it was Zach who asked the question, "why did you just take off your shoes?"

"Oh! That's why you're laughing, then, I suppose? Well stop, it's not funny," she frowned lightly over at Hodgins, "Cherryl, my mentor of sorts, has a strict dress code, which includes heels. I'm not very good at walking in them- apparently, my tiny ones that I've picked out aren't good enough for her. But I digress, the reason I kicked them off is because I can't keep very good balance with them on and I didn't want to accidentally fall onto anything. Like whoever this was," she answered, looking back down at the skeleton.

"Mary Whiteland," Zach stated, picking up a rib bone and examining it closer, before going off on some large-worded description of whatever it was he was seeing.

"What exactly does that mean?" She asked Hodgins, a small smile on her face.

"No idea. I'm just the bug and slime guy," he stated, thinking it adorable how excited she was over absolutely nothing but large words and a pile of bones. "Come on, I think I have some food you can steal while I look the other way. Zach, you coming?"

"I am hungry," he stated, placing the bone back where it belonged, and throwing away his gloves. He turned around to make sure everything was in place one last time, and stopped where he was.

Shilloh was standing on the balls of her feet, leaning over the table as far as she could go without touching it, and her head was dangerously close to the bone he had just placed down. She was chewing on her bottom lip, her eyebrows scrunching together briefly before smoothing out.

"Huh," was all she said, before straightening herself out, flattening her blouse, and looking back up at him. "Oh! I'm sorry, was I not supposed to be doing that?" Her hand reached for the back of her head, playing with her short hair nervously.

"You weren't touching anything, there is no need to worry," he reassured her, and when she smiled at him he was glad he made the effort to find the right words.

**OOO**

"Hey, isn't that what you were eating yesterday?" She asked Zach, poking him slightly to make sure she had his attention.

"Yes."

"Oh," she thought for a minute, "Hodgins, why does everyone call you Hodgins? Why not just Jack? I mean, that is your first name, right? I didn't forget it or anything did I? Because I'm horrible with names, too, and if I forgot your name I'm sorry," she rambled again.

"Yeah, Jack's my first name. I have no idea why no one calls me Jack," he replied, trying not to laugh at her frazzled expression. He seemed to have a very hard time not laughing around her, or more specifically, at her.

"Huh… Would you mind if I called you Jack, then? Hodgins makes me feel so formal," she tried not to blush when she asked it, she really did. She wasn't the type of person to blush normally, because she wasn't the type of person to get embarrassed (worried, panicked, upset, yes- but not embarrassed). But she couldn't help the small blush that formed, and for the first time in a year she was actually embarrassed.

She had just blushed. For no good reason. God, this was so pathetic.

And, unfortunately for Shilloh, Hodgins thought it was the funniest thing in the world, and would spend the rest of the year trying to figure out ways to embarrass her and make her blush.

"Yeah, sure, Jack is fine," he tactfully didn't say anything about her blush, and after a couple of seconds it went away.

"So, Zachs, what is it that you do at the lab?" She asked, trying to get the attention off of her, and wanting to know more about the quiet man next to her.

"I am Dr. Brennan's assistant," he answered mildly, having no real interest in the conversation around him. He finished his lunch and left before Shilloh could think of another question to ask him.

"I don't think he likes me overly much," she stated, but there was no sadness in her voice, just a resignation to facts.

"No, Zach just doesn't understand the concept of small talk; I'm actually surprised he didn't go off on a longer description of what he does at the lab, usually that's something he likes to talk about. I don't know, maybe he's just distracted by the case or something; he's practically been sleeping in the lab this week," with a sigh, Hodgins got up off the couch, signaling that lunch was over.

"Alright, well I suppose I'd better get back to work. Thanks for sharing your lunch with me, I'll bring you some cookies this week to make it up to you," she smiled and headed down the stairs in her bare feet.

"Home made cookies? I demand home made as repayment!" He announced in his best pompous voice, causing her to laugh quietly at him.

"Home made it is. Zachs, I'll make sure to make enough for you, too- Jack's nice for letting me eat some of his lunch, but he's not nice enough for me to be rude and exclude you," she smiled over at him as she slipped her shoes back on awkwardly

"Ok, here we go. Wish me luck, and here's to hoping I don't break anything trying to walk around in these monstrosities!" She called out to them as she made her way down the stairs, clinging to the railing tightly.

"She is making us cookies? Is that a sign that she is a friend of ours?" Zach inquired when she left the lab entirely.

"It means she wants to be our friend- she's trying really hard, but you're not exactly making it easy, Zacho. She keeps trying to talk to you over lunch, and you're not really forthcoming with the details. She thinks you don't like her," Hodgins said, changing out a slide from his microscope.

"But that is not true; and I have answered all of her questions," he looked over at his friend from the femur that he was holding.

"Well, yeah, but they're not exactly answers that could lead into conversations- for example, when she asked what you do in the lab; you said you were Dr. Brennan's assistant, and then you left it at that. You should have given some examples of what you do- you know, take samples, pictures, film clips, examine the remains. From there she would have been able to ask clarifying questions. You see what I'm saying?"

"I see. I will try not give off the appearance of dislike tomorrow, then," he announced, before returning to the femur in his hands.


	5. Day 3 Part 2

Day 3 Part 2

Her coworkers weren't annoying, they just liked the types of things that she didn't. Namely, TV shows like Survivor and American Idol. She'd found one person to talk to about LOST, but the conversation had quickly de-evolved from the interesting topic of the numbers, to how hot the main characters were.

Even still, she would be spending nine months with these people, she really wanted to try and fit in; or at the very least not be avoided. So when they asked her to go to dinner with them on Friday, she'd readily agreed, asking for the simplest directions they could give her.

"Street names and landmarks work best," she'd smiled apologetically when they laughed at her, and thanked Stephanie when she wrote down very detailed directions and a cell number, just in case she got lost.

Now all she had to worry about were clothes- she only had the same pair of jeans she'd been wearing for the past two days, and a blouse in three different colors. Hopefully the airline would call with her luggage before Friday, but since it was already Wednesday, she wasn't holding out too much hope.

Well, maybe if she scrimped a little more somewhere else she could afford to go out and buy a decent outfit. Like maybe lunches- she could just eat the one she'd forgotten for tomorrow, and then start packing lighter lunches.

What was lighter than a sandwich? What was cheaper than a sandwich?

Thinking was hard.

She sighed and rubbed at her ankles, deciding to save her progress and leave for the day; she'd already been working for two hours longer than she was supposed to, and she really did want to go out and get that outfit tonight. That way, she could spend all day tomorrow finishing the project, and Friday fixing whatever problems came up.

With a clear plan in mind, she made her way out of the building for the night, waving goodbye to Stephanie, who seemed the nicest out of the bunch she worked with, and made her way to the shuttle (which still smelled like feet).

The bus back to her apartment was late, but it gave her time to regroup her thoughts, center herself, and decide that she would get off at whatever stop seemed to have the highest amount of stores grouped together.

**OOO**

She wasn't a huge clothing shopper, which stemmed back to the day when she only ever wore jeans, and they were practically impossible to find in her size. But the cathartic act of searching for just the right thing, and being victorious in her search, made her feel very much better about herself and her thus far depressing week.

She'd found a great sale on a beautiful white sundress, and since she'd saved so much money on it, had decided to try and find a pair of shoes to match; she'd wound up spending a bit more than she wanted to on a pair of brown boots, but they were the type she'd been looking for since just about forever.

The best part was that they matched her leather messenger bag wonderfully, and they had actual _traction_ on the soles. It was practically unheard of to find such a thing.

She was still entertaining thoughts of winterizing them as she chose a soft gray zipper hoodie and matching leggings. All in all, despite spending a bit more than she had initially wanted to, she was very happy with her purchase, and she was more than willing to eat apples and string cheese at lunch for the next month to make up for the splurge.

She hopped back onto the bus and sat quietly at her window seat for the next half hour, trying valiantly to ignore the drunken man attempting to hit on her. She was no stranger to taking the bus, it was something she had been doing long before coming to DC, but the eclectic mess of people that took the public transport in this large city made her feel slightly uncomfortable.

Relieved when her stop came up, she brushed past the man, glad when he didn't try and make any sort of disgruntled move on her; and thanked the bus driver before getting off.

From here, she had to walk three blocks to her apartment complex, but it was a quiet walk and it was a nice way to wind down from an overworked day.

She was convinced Cherryl was giving her a large workload to test her, but she didn't know if she wanted to pass the test or not. On the one hand, if she passed, it would more than likely mean respect and better assignments in general. But on the other, it would also probably lead to more work, and she was already spending more time in the office than she was strictly supposed to.

Unlocking her door, she threw her bags next to her small collection of high heeled shoes; she paused momentarily to grimace at them before locking the door behind her, and sliding the deadbolt into place.

It was time to make some cookies. She really wanted to make white chocolate macadamia nut, or maybe oatmeal raisin _or both, I bet the batter combined would be delicious! _But she didn't have recipes for those and her cell phone was currently lost somewhere under the couch, so there would be no looking them up on the internet.

_Well, I suppose it's chocolate chip then_, not that it was a problem. Who would complain about having chocolate chip cookies, really? Still, she had wanted to show off, just a little, and she had also wanted to share a small part of herself- her favorite cookies- with the two people who so far had made her feel the most welcome. And they didn't even work with her.

She went to preheat the oven, but it wouldn't turn on. Frowning, she wedged it away from the wall to see if anything had come unplugged. Nothing had, and since that was the extent of her fix-it knowledge, she made to call her landlord.

Not even three days, and she was already the problem tenant.

He wouldn't be able to fix it until Saturday, which was disappointing, but she reminded herself that the man had a life and other people with other problems that needed to be fixed, as well.

Before hanging up, she asked if it would be ok to paint the walls; she'd never had an apartment before, and she also hadn't read that particular section of the papers she'd had to sign.

Apparently making a fool of herself was an ongoing thing, because he made a big deal of pointing out that he had specifically said when she moved in that it was perfectly fine, so long as she painted everything white again when she moved back out.

Well. Fine then.

After having a cup of noodles for dinner and fishing out her cell from the dark recesses that constituted the underside of the couch, she didn't know what else to do. It was barely even nine, and she refused to try and fall asleep again; she was convinced that going to bed before ten two nights in a row made you either sick or old.

Deciding to wash her clothes with the small washer provided in her apartment, she dug through her previous day's purchases and pulled out some detergent.

No time like the present to try and figure the damned thing out- it was as old as dirt, and half the settings had been worn away so all one could see were estranged letters here and there. She was terrified that the lone 'b' once belonged to something menacing, like obliterate.

Once again proving her lack of foresight (she preferred to call it that, as apposed to the alternative- idiocy), she realized she had still yet to buy any pajamas, or, worse yet, replacement underwear.

She decided to wear her large t-shirt from the flight over while her two-day pile of dirty clothing was washed in the machine of questionable merits and age. While the shirt was large enough to go down to mid-thigh, and she had all the blinds closed, she still felt awkward walking around the place essentially naked; it still didn't feel like _her_ place, and so she had the weird feeling that someone was going to barge in on her at any second.

To distract herself she went back to the odds and ends she had purchased the other day, and pulled out the small selection of nail polish she had decided would be fun. She didn't know how Cherryl would react to something so juvenile, but Shilloh didn't really care. She had already sacrificed her health and comfort in the form of those atrocious shoes, and she was going to do whatever the damned well else she wanted.

Hopefully it wouldn't result in another poster job- she had been assigned one this morning on top of the brochure, which was why she had stayed so late at work. Luckily the poster was a lot easier to do than Cherryl had made it out to be, and tomorrow all she really needed to do was make a mock-up of it to ensure that the bleeds and margins weren't messing anything up. She really was abysmal with printing.

She decided to go with a soft green color on her toes, and by the time she was done with them she was able to switch her clothing over to the dryer. Noting happily that the lone 'b' had not, in fact, completely ruined her pants or shirts, she now turned her fretting over to the dryer; hopefully it wouldn't attempt to melt anything.

She was sure her home-ec teacher hadn't said anything about dryers melting clothes, but she hadn't really paid much attention in that class. And besides, if anyone could prompt a dryer to do the impossible, it would be her.

The dryer bumped and rattled soothingly, and she smiled softly. If it didn't do anything horrible, she would deem it worthy of a nick-name; the washer was still suspect, though, she thought, eyeing it carefully.

Waiting for her clothes to dry she decided to paint her fingernails, too. They would look lovely with the lavender blouse she had purchased; maybe she should wear some jewelry tomorrow, too.

Luckily, she always packed her small bag of jewelry in her messenger bag when she went on planes, since most of what she owned was too sentimental for her to want to trust with strangers.

Perusing through the small pile of belongs she'd squirreled away in her messenger bag, she idly thought about how incredibly pathetic she was. She lived in her living room- as in, she hadn't even looked in the bedroom. Everything she currently possessed was strewn about between the main door and the front of the couch, with a couple things thrown hastily into the bathroom the day before.

First paycheck she got would be used for hangers for all her clothing, and some hooks for her jewelry. Wishing she had enough to spend on more than just those essentials, she thought about everything else she'd have to use the money on, too; all the boring, adult essentials- food, water, electricity, phone… rent. God, rent. That was going to be a big one. She sighed and looked at the bag holding her brand new dress, still shoved over by the front door. She really shouldn't have purchased that.

**Hey guys. Don't get used to me posting this often. I'm mostly just doing it to get to the next bit that has a lot more of the characters in it. Also, I just realized that the dividers I originally had aren't showing up on ff.n, so I'll be re-posting chapters 1-4 here in a little bit.**

**Oh, and because I'm lazy, I'm pretending that this is "modern" time (as in September 2010), because I make the occasional reference to video games or movies, and I don't want to try and remember/look up what would be accurate for a 2005 setting. **


	6. Day 4 Part 1

Day 4 Part 1

She woke up the next morning to the incessant beeping of her cell phone, and her right eye felt like it was on fire. She had fallen asleep with her contact in. It was a good thing she had set her cell phone up to automatically go off every Monday through Friday, or she would have over slept.

Groggily moving from her sleeping position on the floor, she shut her cell phone up and scooped her underwear out of the dryer. Nothing melted, good sign.

She was thinking of naming her dryer something obscure, like Duchamp. Maybe Norton.

The shower in the apartment was about as dilapidated as the rest of the apartment, but the hot water lasted a lot longer than it did back at home.

She decided to wear light brown eye shadow today; she hardly ever wore makeup, and she was proud of herself. She thought it would match best with the purple blouse and the green nail polish- man that made her sound like such a girl, and she was pretty proud of herself for that, too.

Before leaving the apartment, she slipped on a pair of key earrings and the cute white heels that she had actually found comfortable when she tried them on the other day. Today was going to be a good day.

And then it started to rain.

**OOO**

Her blouse was pretty much soaked by the time she got into the Jeffersonian, despite her best efforts to remain dry (it included quite a bit of awkward body twists and using her bag as a pathetic umbrella). Fortunately, she had somehow, miraculously and unbelievably, arrived an hour before anyone was expecting her; and the women's restrooms had those hand dryer things.

"You look like a drowned cat," Jack announced from behind her, and she jumped slightly, which was a bad idea in her heels. She managed to stay standing, but just barely.

"Yeah, well, I didn't exactly have anything I could use to-" she stopped pathetically and groaned. "I am such a moron!" She announced as she remembered the hoodie she had purchased the day before. It wouldn't have left her dry or anything, but she at least wouldn't have to strip in the women's bathroom.

"Ok? Care to enlighten the class as to why?" He asked as he pushed her down the hall and towards the lab.

"Yeah, I forgot that I purchased a hoodie last night, so now I'm completely soaked for no good reason other than my own stupidity. I'm going to have to use those hand dryer machines in the bathroom to dry off," she whined to him, skipping over her own feet as he ushered her up the steps. "Slow down, I can't keep up with you and your vastly superior footwear!"

"I take it you were in the rain for a prolonged period of time?" Zach announced as her and Hodgins appeared before him.

"Yeah, and she won't stop complaining about it, either," Hodgins replied, ignoring the swat on his arm he received for his light ribbing.

"Ugh. Yeah, yeah. I get it, ok? I already told you I'm an idiot, there's no point in being mean about it; also, why am I here?" She looked around, for the first time noticing that she was in the lab. "Was I just kidnapped? Jack, I have work to do!" She was making a habit of whining, too, apparently.

"I didn't kidnap you, shut up already. You're soaking wet and were getting a lot of looks from those psychos in paleontology," he shooed her over into a corner while he rummaged around for an extra lab coat. When he looked back over at her, she had a mildly horrified expression on her face.

"Oh my God. The entire office probably thinks I'm a slut now," her voice carried quietly over to both the men, who didn't exactly know how to respond to that.

"Sweetie, the entire office doesn't think you're a slut. The entire office now thinks you're a complete babe," a feminine voice announced, and Shilloh was able to see an adorable bob of black hair before her entire vision was taken up with a blue lab coat.

"Here," was all she could hear Jack say, who had thrown the coat onto her head, "put that on before those paleo nerds figure out where I've stashed you." She gratefully slipped it on, buttoning up the jacket as far as it would go, and then clutched the front of it for good measure.

"Oh my, you'd think someone had told her she was being stalked or something. Calm down, it's just attention, no big deal," the woman from earlier was suddenly in Shilloh's vision. Also, the hair wasn't a bob; it was just a super cute up-do. "Hello. My name is Angela," the woman smiled down at her.

"Hi. Shilloh Phillips," her face was still a little pale, and her fingers clenched and unclenched the fabric of the jacket; she really hated attention, and she didn't want stories of her completely drenched self circulating around the place.

"I don't see how your present state would cause others to think of you as a slut," Zach looked right at her, at it made her smile a little. He was trying to be comforting, and his matter of fact way of stating it was actually making her feel better.

"Thanks Zachs; I was just over reacting," she smiled at him to let him know she really did appreciate him trying to comfort her. "I suppose I now have the arduous task of trying to dry this blouse off," she sighed, before addressing Angela, who was still standing in front of her. "Would you be able to tell me where the women's bathroom is?"

"Yeah, sure, but you know, I think I have a spare shirt you could just borrow for the day," Angela was usually nice, but she wasn't the type of person to hand out favors to people she'd just met. But she liked the way the girl in front of her was interacting with Zach, she felt it was good for the guy, and any excuse to get her into the lab more often was a good enough reason for Angela to act a little extra nice.

"Oh no, I couldn't impose like that. Besides, I'm terrified of my washing machine- I really do think one of the settings' only purpose is to destroy clothing. I wouldn't want to ruin anything loaned to me. I have an hour before anyone's expecting me; I'll just spend it drying off in the bathroom. Thank you very much, though," Angela twitched her nose slightly- this girl was too nice, she could tell already. Where was she from, anyway? There was no way a city girl would subtly say thank you so many times in one sentence.

"I am confused, who would make a washing machine with a setting that would destroy clothing?" Zach interrupted before Angela could forcibly insist on the girl borrowing a shirt.

"Oh, no, sorry Zach. I just meant that I haven't figured out my new washing machine yet- and it doesn't help that you can't read what the settings are anymore, since it's so old. So mostly, what I was trying to say, was that I was worried I would ruin her shirt with my general ineptitude and my horrendously old washer," that settled it. This girl was going to borrow a shirt, and she was most likely going to be kidnapped after work, as well.

"I see," Zach thought for a second longer, and then, "so it was a joke, then," and when Shilloh smiled at him as a way of saying yes, Angela was pleased that he had paid attention to some of her pointers, and he smiled back.

"Well, be that as it may, you are borrowing a shirt. I don't want to have to try and socialize with you over the sound of those hand dryer machines," she grabbed a hold of Shilloh's wrist and drug her along to her office, ignoring the sounds of stumbling coming from the short woman.

"But- and- we just discussed this! I'll ruin your shirt!"

"So? Just return it to me after work, it's not like I can't wash it myself," Angela shrugged, pushing open the door to her office and tugging the girl in after her.

"Alright, since I'm going to lose this argument anyway. What would you like to socialize about?" Angela was positive that Shilloh was being sarcastic, but she said it with such a straight face that she couldn't be completely sure.

"Well for starters, how do you know Hodgins and Zach?" She asked as she shuffled through her things, looking for a shirt that would fit the smaller girl.

"I was pathetically lost on Tuesday, and luckily Jack was able to tell me how to get to the graphics department. I wound up eating lunch here later that day since I couldn't find the cafeteria, either- are those sequins?" Shilloh was going to continue about her work friends, it seemed like a natural segue into complaining about not having anything in common with them; but she interrupted herself when Angela held up a purple shirt that glittered under the soft lighting.

"You're right, this won't work with your skin tone at all. So you've only been working here for three days? Are you new to DC as well?" Angela was once again moving things about, finding a shirt was proving harder than she had initially thought.

"Yeah, I got in Monday night. It's been hectic trying to get everything together around work, especially with the airline losing my luggage," she made a face, thinking Angela wasn't looking and so it was safe to do so, and continued, "I've pretty much got the same blouse in three different colors right now; hopefully I'll get a yea or nay soon on if they've found my luggage."

"Well then it's probably a good thing it rained today, can't have you wearing the same clothing two days in a row, especially to a new job," Angela replied, holding up a soft gold tank top. She nodded in approval before tossing it over to Shilloh.

"It's really an internship and not technically a job- senior year of my degree in visual communication requires that you are an intern before you can graduate. Since I got the position here, I managed to make a couple special arrangements and had my last two classes waved; but my mentor, Cherryl, has to come up with a senior project for me," Shilloh eyed the tank top skeptically before slipping out of the coat and peeling off the blouse.

The tank top wasn't something she would have picked out for herself, but it wasn't flashy and it wasn't low-cut, so she would be alright in it for the day. She just really wished she had something to wear over it, since she hated not having sleeves; it made her feel very self-conscious. She shivered slightly in the cold air, and decided to slip the lab coat back on.

"Alright, I'll hang this up out in the lab so it can dry; just stop by before you head home so you can pick it up," Angela picked up the wet blouse and smiled over at Shilloh, who nodded shyly, not exactly knowing what else to say besides thank you. "Now, let's head back out, you've got another fourty-ish minutes before you're supposed to be anywhere, and I'm tired of being the only female the guys get to interact with."

Shilloh laughed- Angela didn't know yet what a guy she was at heart, so the idea that she would somehow 'tame the grotesque men' was wildly hilarious. Still, she liked socializing with Angela, and so she decided to try and keep that bit a secret for a while longer yet.

Unfortunately, being a girly-girl was something Angela very shortly discovered Shilloh was not; as she wobbled dangerously once they met up with the guys, titled to the left, and then collapsed.

"Inner ear, heels, you both need to get along. I know you don't like each other very much, but for the sake of my health, I need you to cooperate," she sighed. Picking herself up off the ground, she decided that heels probably weren't the best choice to wear in a lab filled with very expensive items, and kicked them into the same unused corner as the previous day.

"Are you ok?" Angela asked, looking her over and glaring at Hodgins who was laughing.

"Yeah, it's a very common occurrence. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that I'm not really much of a girl," she confided- there went her hope at keeping it a secret for a while.

"Why were you speaking to your inner ear? I have heard people talk to inanimate objects before, which I do not understand, but never to a part of the body before," Zach asked once she was standing properly.

"Really? Not even their stomachs? Because that's common, you know," he shook his head, his eyebrows scrunched together, "Oh. Well, mostly it was just a way for me to humorously chastise myself for my lack of balance and grace by placing the blame on two inanimate things that were contributing factors, but ultimately not responsible for my little tumble."

She could practically see the wheels turning in his head, and was ready for the follow-up question she knew he was going to ask.

"But why would you place blame on two things that could not control whether you fell or not?"

She smiled up at him- God, he was so freaking tall, it made her feel like she was a toddler again- and replied, "well, some people do it because they're embarrassed that they made a mistake, and so they don't want to admit that they were wrong in some fashion or another. I did it because I think it's funny; don't worry yourself if you don't get the humor in it, not a lot of people think I'm all that funny either," still smiling, she turned to Hodgins, finger pointed at him, and announced, "and thanks for asking if I was alright, by the way!"

"Hey! You didn't get mad at Zach for not asking!"

"That's because Zach isn't being intentionally mean by not asking- he merely noticed that I was obviously fine. You, on the other hand, are just a big jerk."

"How can you tell what Zach is thinking? No one can tell what Zach is thinking!"

"Why am I a part of this argument?"

Angela could tell already that she was really going to like not being the only female the two guys interacted with. Brennan was a sweetheart, but she was too analytical to really count for much on the social scale, most days.


	7. Day 4 Part 2

Day 4 Part 2

She had worked through lunch trying to fix some stupid font problem on the brochure. The poster was fine, everything had gone off without a hitch, and it was now proudly displayed in her little cubicle; but the freaking brochure would not format itself correctly.

She hadn't been able to figure out why text wrap wasn't working, and she'd spent the last two hours working on it; it had turned out to be a layers problem that she felt insanely stupid for not realizing; but now she couldn't find the correct file she needed.

Everything on this damned project was labeled incorrectly.

"No, I don't want to the God damned logo," she muttered furiously, clicking away at the files- what the hell was SmileTeeth01? And why were they using .jpg? Hadn't they created the files themselves? Shouldn't they be using Photoshop format so they weren't losing any of the quality?

This entire piece was bullshit, and she was at the end of her rope.

Heaving tiredly, she told herself to make it through the last page, just one more, and she could go home. Tomorrow would be all about spot-proofing to make sure there were no stupid mistakes made; nice and relaxing. Hopefully.

**OOO**

"Hey, we missed you during lunch," Hodgins greeted her when she showed up in the lab.

"Aww, thanks. After the day I've had that makes me feel loads better. Of course, by miss, you really mean you were hoping I would have brought the cookies today, yeah?" At his wide smile she shook her head. "Sorry guy, my stove broke. You'll have to wait until Monday for them. I hope chocolate chip is good enough for your refined taste buds, because that's all you're getting."

"Man, and here I was hoping for something decadent, like refried gold," he replied, and she laughed, not really expecting it from him.

"Do you know where Angela hung my blouse? I came by to exchange shirts and stop looking at me with that lesbian daydream look I don't appreciate it," she continued in one breath. When he smirked at her she made a face at him and decided to try and find Zach instead. "Fine. I'll just leave you to it. Have fun."

"Zachs! You around here somewhere?" She called out, feeling very much like she was playing a game of Marco Polo.

"I am in here," he replied, and she barreled into said room without thinking about anything.

"Hey Zachs, you wouldn't happen to know where Angela placed my blouse, would you?" She asked, before pausing, and letting out an excited, "oooh! What are you doing in here?"

"No, I do not know where Angela has placed your shirt. And I had assumed my actions were self-explanatory, but for the sake of clarification, I am reconstructing the skull of Mary Whiteland," his voice had taken on a different timbre, and Shilloh was thoroughly entranced. She was finally able to see Zach concentrating fully on something.

"I knew what you were doing, though I didn't know it was Mary. I was merely attempting to draw you into conversation and expressing an interest in said activity," she clarified. The way Zach spoke didn't bother her, she was very good with words- it bothered her teachers to no end, since she was usually able to weasel her way out of things with well thought out arguments and the properly placed words. Talking to Zach was like placing together puzzle pieces, only using words; and she was also very good at puzzles.

"Forgive me, I believe I may have come off as rude again," he said to her; she tried not to laugh as he continued to speak in the voice she was starting to recognize as his concentrating voice.

Instead of trying to continue the conversation, she slipped off her shoes, leaving them in a careless pile by the door; she then padded quietly over to the table and stood on the opposite side of him, not saying anything, just staring down at all the pieces that used to be Mary.

She continued to look at the bone fragments themselves for quite a while, trying to visually place them together herself, before getting bored with not knowing if she was right, and opted to watch what Zach was doing.

It was fascinating, watching him move pieces around the table, pushing them together and then pulling them apart, deciding that no, they did not belong together. She didn't know how he knew, they looked like they should go together to her, but she supposed that's why she was paid to make pretty pictures all day and he was paid to solve crimes.

The best part was watching him glue the pieces together. She had tried to do a couple 3d puzzles once, but they all wound up collapsing in on themselves (even the Earth one, and she had finally smartened up and decided to use glue with that one. She still wasn't entirely sure how it had collapsed; to this day her sister still made fun of her, occasionally calling her Atlas just to be spiteful. It was meant to be ironic or something, but Shilloh thought her sister just wasn't very original). So how Zach was able to piece together bits of something so important was highly impressive to her.

She didn't want to say so, however, because she figured he already knew it was pretty awesome. Most likely not with that word choice, though.

She had been watching for close to forty-five minutes when she finally saw two pieces she thought might fit together; she really wanted to say something, but she wasn't exactly certain on the protocol. This wasn't her field; would it be rude of her to ask if they fit together? Would Zach think she was taking Mary's death too lightly? She wasn't, but she still really wanted to know if she was right.

"From your posture and the way you are fidgeting, I am going to deduce that you have a question. Am I correct?" Zach didn't look up from the bone fragment he was putting in place, which she was thankful for, because she felt put on the spot as it was.

She was going to ask him; if he thought she was a horrible person afterwards, oh well, she had a feeling he didn't much care for her as it was anyway.

"I do indeed have a question. I've been staring at these two pieces for a while, and to me they look like they fit. I'm not trained or anything, obviously, but I would still like to know if I'm correct," she leaned over the table slightly, extra careful not to touch it, and stretched her arm out to point to a piece that was to the left of Zach, and then straightened out and pointed to a piece that was directly in front of her.

She looked up at him, and he was looking back at her with a blank expression, the bottle of glue in his hand.

"I'm sorry. Was that rude of me? I'm not trying to devalue you, I just really like puzzles. Oh! And I'm most certainly not saying that all Mary is is a puzzle anymore, she's still very important, but, really, she needs to be fixed in order to find out what happened to her. And… Well… I apologize," she forced herself to stop talking, and stared down at her feet. She could have continued on for quite a while still, but she was trying to break the habit of rambling. She really hadn't thought she would care what Zach would think when she asked if the two pieces fit, but then he had gone and looked at her blankly, and she had been afraid he was disappointed in her.

She couldn't stand disappointment; she would rather if he didn't like her than that. She wiggled her toes and tried to think only of the feel of the metal against her bare feet.

"They do indeed fit together. There is no need to apologize, I found nothing offensive," Zach's voice made her look up, and she smiled widely when she noticed him gluing the two pieces together.

She didn't know it, but he wasn't really supposed to glue them until he'd found where on the skull they were supposed to fit; she had simply looked so upset with herself that he had thought it would be the simplest way to make her not upset.

"There you are! Hodgins said you came in a while ago to trade shirts, why didn't you come to my office?" Angela entered the room, surprised to find the girl so obviously enthralled with the skull reconstruction process.

"Ah, right. I actually forgot where your office was; like I said earlier I'm really bad with directions. Hodgins was being a perv, and so I came to find Zachs instead, only I got distracted. Angela! I found two pieces!" Shilloh smiled excitedly, pointing them out, and Zach obliged her non verbal request by holding the two glued pieces up for inspection.

Angela raised an eyebrow, but smiled anyway, "that's great; hey, we're all going out for dinner tonight. You should come with, especially since your shirt isn't totally dry yet, and wearing a wet shirt home wouldn't really be what I would consider fun."

"I don't know of anyone who would think of that as fun, Angela," Zach said, once again combing through bone pieces.

Shilloh laughed, really hard. She had to hold her side and step away from the table to keep from accidentally bumping it. Angela didn't really see what was all that funny, Zach made comments like that all the time; she glanced over at Zach to see a very subtle smile on his face as he continued to place pieces together.

"I'd love to go to dinner, but I can't spend the money right now- I've already promised some of the girls I work with I'd go to dinner tomorrow, and it's not in my budget to go out twice a week. I'll come next time though, I promise," Shilloh said, after calming down.

Angela nodded, and then said, "alright, well let's get over to my office, then. Try to remember how to get there this time. If you don't though, skip asking Hodgins and go directly to Zach. He doesn't get what Hodgins thinks is so hot about lesbians," she said, as she pulled Shilloh out of the room and towards her office.

"Is that why he thought the delivery lady asking for your signature was hot?" They could hear Zach asking from behind them, and they both laughed, even though Shilloh didn't know the story behind it; she was filled in on the short trek to the taller woman's office, and they both started laughing again.

"So how did you know Zach was joking in there?" Angela asked, trying to remember where she had placed the shirt. She glanced over at Shilloh, who was lightly touching a circular scar that just barely peeked above the tank top.

"His voice changed," she glanced over at Angela who was giving her a secretive smile, and she exasperatedly cut Angela off, before she had the chance to say anything, "don't you dare try and play matchmaker. I'm good with words. Really, really good with them; I notice not only where they're placed in a sentence, but how they're said- how someone is intending to use them. He was trying to be funny. Granted, it wasn't the funniest sentence in the world, but it was hilarious that he was trying so hard. Made me feel oddly proud- like the first day my sister was actually able to utter an intelligent insult," Angela was still smiling, and Shilloh rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I'm not going to play matchmaker; I'm just noting that it's adorable how well you seem to be able to understand what he's trying to say already, that's all," Angela really wasn't trying to play romantic matchmaker. She just wanted her most socially reclusive friend to finally find someone he could connect with without trying too hard; someone who would find it easier to shove him into other social situations and groom him into a more normal human. Which sounded horrible in her mind, but that was what Zach really wanted- to fit in, and Hodgins and Angela were really trying, but they weren't quite able to get him to where he needed to be.

"Good. I'm not looking for anything right now. Especially since I'm not even going to be here for an entire year," Shilloh was satisfied that Angela wasn't going to try and hook her up with _anyone_, let alone Zach, and so she looked around the office.

"Did you paint all these?" She asked, stopping before each piece to inspect the brush strokes used and admire the blending.

"Yeah. Here you go, it's dryer than I thought," Angela tossed the shirt to her.

"They're very good," Shilloh praised, her voice muffled as she pulled the tank top off, "what medium do you prefer?" Her voice muffled once again as she yanked the blouse on. It wasn't wet anymore, but just damp enough to make putting it on uncomfortable; she tried not to shiver as the air around her suddenly felt cold.

"Mostly acrylic, but I do a lot of work with pencils and the computer for work," Angela replied, holding back her comment on how cute it was that Shilloh was folding the tank top before giving it back.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask you earlier, what is it that you do here? You don't seem lame at all, especially when compared to that Jack Hodgins," Shilloh said, unable to resist making fun of the man even when he wasn't present.

"Thank God! I have been worried I was turning into a squint for the longest time," Angela took the tank top back and flopped it on top of her bag. "I mostly do facial reconstructions- they give me the skull, I tell them what the person looked like. I also do drawings from eyewitnesses."

"That is so cool," Angela felt herself puff a little with pride, "man; I wish I had known about something like that when I went in for my degree. Then again, maybe not; I'd have spent more time trying to decide between the two then getting any actual schooling done," she looked over at Angela and finished with, "and you are quite possibly the least squinty person I have ever met."

This girl was positively adorable.

"Well, we won't be going out until Brennan gets back, do you want to hang around until then?" Angela asked, hoping that she wasn't pushing too hard to try and be sociable with the girl.

"That sounds like fun; my apartment's pretty bare-bones right now, so there's nothing to go back to, anyway," Shilloh admitted as they left the office.

"So you're saying that it's between an empty apartment and the lab?" Angela asked, pretending to sound hurt.

Shilloh squinted up at the ceiling and played with her lips between her teeth, she then deadpanned over in Angela's general direction, "yup. Pretty much."

"Ouch, Ange, shot down by the pipsqueak," Hodgins called over to them as they came within earshot of the platform.

"Ok, two things- one, I don't know what you're so happy about, since you were also just barely chosen over an empty apartment; and two, I am not so short as to tolerate being called a pipsqueak. Heed the intended warning and don't do it again, or there will be very creative justice wreaked in the near future," Shilloh was distracted as she was talking; she had just noticed something was missing. "Hey! I forgot my shoes in the other room, be right back guys!"

"How exactly do you forget shoes?" Hodgins yelled after her, not bothering to correct her when she turned right instead of left like she was supposed to- the only way for her to learn her way around was to get lost. At least, that's what he was going to tell her when she confronted him later about why he didn't inform her she was headed in the wrong direction.

Both Angela and Jack exchanged amused looks when she returned a moment later, striding confidently to the left; they had to stifle laughter when she returned shortly after, looking highly confused.

Seemingly haven given up on trying to find the room by herself, she yelled out for Zach, who didn't respond right away.

So, she tried again, "Hey! Zach!" When she heard a call somewhere off to her left, she did a small twirl and flounced off, stopping every several feet to call out again.

"When I first met her, I didn't believe she really was as horrible with directions as she said; but how anyone can have a hard time finding a room they were _just in_ I do not know."

"Yeah, she mentioned she met you by asking for directions," Angela said, a smile in her voice; Shilloh looked so young that she was often times reminded of awkward and gangly middle schoolers. "How old is she, anyway?" She asked Hodgins. Now that the thought of her age had appeared, it wouldn't leave.

"You know, she never said. If it weren't for the fact that she has an apartment I'd say she was seventeen. We should ask. Do girls get offended by those types of questions when they're so young?" He asked Angela, who looked at him oddly before lightly rolling her eyes.


	8. Day 4 Part 3

Day 4 Part 3

"Zach!" She called out again; she didn't remember it taking this long to find him the first time.

"Why do you keep calling my name?" He asked from the doorway on her right, and she smiled, relieved that she had finally found the right place.

"I was lost," she said simply, before sliding past him in the doorway and looking around for where she had placed her shoes. "There they are!" Going to grab them, she accidentally bumped into him, hitting her nose. "Oof! Sorry, I need to watch where I'm going."

Settling herself on the ground, she rubbed at her nose while she slipped on her heels. "You know, I just realized how absolutely disgusting it is of me to run around the lab without my shoes on. It's unsafe and unhygienic, and quite frankly I'm surprised that not only have Angela and Hodgins let me run around most of the time in here without them on, but you have, too." She was mostly just making idle chatter to herself; she didn't usually mind the silence, but she was getting tired of Zach not talking to her, and so she had resolved to start speaking enough for the both of them.

"Hodgins and I had a conversation about it. We both decided it was better than the alternative," he said, once more resuming his post in front of Mary's skull fragments. He had gotten a couple more pieces figured out while she had been gone, but her interest was centered more on what he had said than what he was doing.

"You had a conversation about it?"

"Yes."

"When? And why?" She scrunched her nose, not really understanding why anyone would want to talk about her footwear in general.

"The other day you complained about your dress code requiring heels, and how uncoordinated you were in them. Because of your fall this morning, Hodgins and I decided over lunch that the less you wear of them the better," he pushed two pieces together, holding them up for inspection, before placing them down again and reaching to grab a different piece.

"And so it was decided that barefoot was better than me walking around in heels." She didn't know why, but she felt like she was missing something. How was gross and barefoot better than not gross and mildly klutzy?

"Yes. As shown by your lack of balance both yesterday and today, it has been determined by both myself and Hodgins that you run a high probability of breaking something; we would both prefer to cut that probability down, and so it was decided to let you walk around the lab without the shoes."

Shilloh wasn't sure how she was feeling, but she was positive that grateful and touched were in there somewhere.

Zach thought her lack of response disheartening, though, and continued on, "it wasn't something we decided lightly, if that concerns you. There was a pro and con list," he looked up from the piece he was holding to look over at her.

She was wobbling slightly on the shoes she had put back on, and she took a deep breath in before saying," Zach, that is probably the most caring thing anyone has ever said to me."

He looked at her oddly before replying, "being told to be careful when you're walking in high heels is the most care you have ever received?" And when he put it that way it kind of made her sad, because she still really believed, even after everything her parents had done for her, that it was true.

"Well when you phrase it like that it sounds really pathetic, doesn't it? I suppose what I should have said, was that I have never had anyone who has known me for so little an amount of time, care for my well being enough to actually make a pro and con list. Thank you," she smiled wide enough to make her feel like she had cracked her lips, and tried desperately not to feel like she wanted to go cry.

Being told someone had made a list just for you wasn't supposed to be a big deal.

"Oh, so you did make in here after all. Angela and I were starting to get worried that you'd taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Oz," Hodgins interrupted, and Shilloh was never more happy in her life; one more moment of trying to hold herself together and she very well may have started crying. Poor Zach.

"That is a popular movie reference, correct?" Zach asked, placing his attention on the new occupants of the room.

"Yeah, it is; score one for you Zackaroni," Hodgins replied, and Zach smiled slightly at the light praise and his understanding of a pop culture reference.

"So what were you two doing before we interrupted?" Angela teased, making Shilloh roll her eyes. The two had an understanding that there was no romantic interest from any angle at any point, anywhere, in Shilloh's life, but Angela could still poke at her. It was her duty as the older female, after all.

"I was informing Shilloh of the decision Hodgins and I made in regards to her footwear," Zach replied, not understanding the context the question was asked in; Shilloh was thankful for that, she didn't want to try and fumble through an explanation of why Angela thought it was funny to have the two of them paired together.

"They were talking about your shoes?"

"Yes. Apparently, Hodgins is madly jealous of them and simply cannot stand the thought that his hideous feet can't fit into them. So him and Zach devised a scheme whereupon I am not to wear them in the lab anymore. That way, Hodgins can focus on his work and not on my beautiful feet in my lovely shoes," she gushed to Angela, moving her hands about animatedly. How she managed to say it with a completely straight face Angela didn't know, but it was something she admired greatly.

"I am assuming that was a joke. And since it was directed towards Hodgins, I am also going to assume it was a funny one," Zach deadpanned, and both women started laughing, realizing that he had made a joke himself.

"Hey! Alright, this isn't funny, it's not nice to gang up on one person," Hodgins' protests went unheard while both women continued to laugh, and Zach smiled as he glued another piece together.

"But did they seriously talk about your shoes?" Angela asked when she could breathe again; it was nice to hear Zach joke around, and it was great to hear someone with a sense of humor that didn't involve dead things.

"Yeah, they're both afraid I'm going to break something walking around in my dress-code-ordered heels, so apparently they're letting me have free reign around the lab without them on," she tried not to let on how touched she was, but Angela gave her a knowing look, and then glanced at her two boys- she was very proud of them both right now.

"Aside from making sure you hadn't gotten yourself lost, we also came to steal Zach for a moment; Hodgins found some abnormalities with one of his experiments and he wants to get a second opinion," Angela said, waiting for Zach to acknowledge that he'd heard her.

Both boys left the room, and Angela made sure Shilloh wasn't going to dash out after them.

"Angela, they made a pro and con list; from the way Zach said it, it sounded very extensive," her voice was very soft, and Angela was struck with how young looking she really was just then; standing in the middle of the cold room, wobbling slightly on her white heels. Her face looked abnormally long compared to how it had just moments earlier, when they were all laughing. "I know it sounds really bad, but I don't think anyone's ever cared that much about me."

Angela drew in a breath, this wasn't the type of conversation people had after only knowing each other for a day, but Shilloh looked so very lost and she was never one to turn people away.

"Sweetie…" she trailed off, not knowing what else to say for a second. "I think this place is going to be very good for you," she decided on, before lightly touching Shilloh's shoulder and leading her out of the room.

It seemed to lighten the mood, though, and they were quiet for a while as they walked down the hall to catch up with the boys.

Shilloh suddenly scoffed and said in a teasing tone of voice, "yeah, assuming my work load doesn't exhaust me to death, my clothes ever turn up, my apartment manager ever fixes my oven, or that stupid leak," she paused just in time to trip up the steps, "or my dress code changes. If all of those things happen, I think DC will be great for me," she was making them laugh again, and Angela was relieved that she wasn't actually sad about the amount of care shown to her.

"I thought you were told not to wear shoes in the lab?" Hodgins directed over at her as Zach bent down over the microscope at his station.

"No. I was told I didn't _have_ to wear shoes, and that it was best if I didn't. I was not told that I didn't have a choice in the matter," she stuck her tongue out and walked over to them in her heels just for good measure.

"Hey squints, I come bearing good news!" This was a new voice for Shilloh, but it was one that everyone else knew very well.

"Agent Booth, you were able to find new evidence?" Zach asked, still looking through the microscope.

"Yup. She wasn't killed by her mother- solid alibi there. She may, however, have come into contact with the gardener," he said, before stopping at the top of the stairs and waiting for Dr. Brennan to swipe her ID to let them in.

It wasn't until he was all the way on the platform that he noticed Shilloh. "Oh, hello- new squint?" He asked, shifting his head to the right slightly; Shilloh felt vaguely like she was being categorized, and she didn't like it.

"Nope. New graphics intern; Shilloh Phillips, it's nice to meet you, sir. This isn't my department, so I won't feel offended if you don't remember my name," she said, not having decided if she liked him or not yet. She always tended to lean on the bold side when she hadn't made up her mind about someone. If she took the time to think it over, she would be very disappointed by her definition of bold, since her greeting was anything but. It was, however, a far cry from awkward words directed at the ground, and so for her, that was bold.

"Special Agent Seeley Booth, FBI," he said with the familiarity of someone who said it often, and then centered his head; apparently he was done judging her. "So if you're not in this department, what are you doing here, if you don't mind my asking?"

He knew how to give off the appearance of politeness, but she could tell when someone was trying to decide if they liked her or not; she'd heard the tone of voice often enough to memorize it.

"I just started working here Tuesday, and so far, these guys have been the only ones both nice and stupid enough to put up with me," she said, deciding that she'd let it all play out, and that she ultimately wouldn't care one way or the other if he didn't like her. He gave off the feeling of a jock, and she never had great conversations with jocks in the past, even when they were nice.

"Huh, sounds about right. So are you joining us at the diner then?"

Well, apparently she had passed the initiation portion, at least. "I can't tonight, but I want to go- and since you're the only one in the group I've yet to meet, the next time everyone goes you'll have to as well," it was a simple enough demand, and she didn't think anything of it; she was trying to be nice.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, and then quirked his lips, "kid, I already have a girlfriend."

She choked on her own spit, "Jesus. No. No! I was trying to be nice! I'm only twenty-two, what are you, thirty-five?" She looked at him, appalled that he would think she was trying to hit on him. "Don't get me wrong, thirty-something isn't old, but it's definitely out of my dating spectrum, guy."

Booth tried not to look hurt while Angela cackled, "man, you weren't kidding when you said you weren't looking for a relationship; honey, he's definitely one you'd go outside of your normal dating spectrum for," she continued to laugh at Booth's startled look and Shilloh's vaguely affronted one.

"Well, now that we've all met- the gardener theory might corroborate with the anomalies I'm finding on the bugs; I can't figure out why they died with that odd discoloration, and I'm having a hard time duplicating it. Next time you're out, see if you can get samples of the chemicals he uses, as well as samples from his tools," Hodgins interrupted, not much liking the idea of Booth and Angela doing anything too friendly together.

"And that would be my indication to head out; I'll see you at lunch tomorrow, guys, sorry I couldn't come to dinner tonight," Shilloh waved to everyone before skipping sets of stairs and exiting the lab, not noticing the wince Hodgins had- just waiting for her to trip herself up and go tumbling down the stairs.

"Well, she was nice," Booth said, before corralling everyone into movement; he was really hungry.

**OOO**

It had been a very exciting day, and she felt like a toddler for thinking it, but it was still true. She couldn't force herself to wind down, and she didn't have any of her usual methods of end-of-the-day relaxation: video games, pointless internet flash games, watching her television box sets.

So she settled with repainting her nails, this time going with something a little more intricate, hoping that the concentration it would require would leave her with little time to think about anything else. Polka dots it was.

The white base was harder to put on than it should have been, but by the time she was putting on the different colors- magenta, green, and blue- her mind was no longer focused on the task, and was instead wandering.

She felt like she had betrayed her parents in some way; making a pro and con list on the merits of women's shoes did not show more care than sacrificing large portions of your life.

It did not equal the endless hours of research spent looking into what doctors needed to be seen next; when they weren't getting the full story from the ones they were seeing.

It wasn't anywhere near spending an entire week at a time, every month, just sitting in a hospital room watching stupid cartoons and boring documentaries with your sick child.

And yet; somehow, it did. She felt sick thinking it, because she knew her parents did everything out of love and care, but somehow, everything they did still felt like it had been done for themselves.

Spending every day in the hospital with your child because _you_ need _her_, and not because she needs you. Researching doctors to go to that would hopefully be able to reduce the appearance of the port scars; not because your daughter is self-conscious, but because you can't stand the pain of looking at them.

She accidentally made a magenta dot bigger than she wanted to, and cursed silently when her vision swam too much for her to fix it. The damned pro and con list had proven her point for her- she had needed to get away from it all, because she was sick and tired of doing everything for her parents.

Moving to DC, she had found two people that didn't even know her, and were willing to spend their lunches talking about what was best for _her_. Not what served the dual purpose of being best for her and easing their pain.

Her nails would take a while to dry, and she didn't think through things very well before painting them, because she was now very hungry, and very much unable to do anything with her hands.

She fell asleep wondering how exactly she'd tell her sister about her day.


	9. Days 5 to 7

She didn't get up early to fancy herself up, and she didn't try to do anything special with her hair- in fact, she didn't even put on make up today. She was really not excited about going out to dinner with her coworkers.

Which sounded atrocious, she had been so excited on Wednesday; but yesterday Stephanie had cornered her to talk about how she thought Megan smelled, and Megan had complained non-stop about not being able to figure out how to set up the booklet she was working on.

Shilloh had to restrain herself from yelling at both of them- Megan didn't smell, Stephanie was just smelling Bob's lunch, and how Megan had made it through college without knowing how to set up a booklet she did not know.

It didn't help matters that Stephanie had also tried to subtly hint to Shilloh that she should wear something that wasn't low-cut; apparently her scar made Stephanie upset or something.

So she spent a record amount of fifteen minutes getting ready; and that included taking a shower. She was pleased that the dress was just low enough to show off her scar, and decided to forgo wearing a necklace like she had originally planned.

The air outside was cold, but that probably had something to do with the fact that her hair was still wet; and so while she waited for her bus she pulled her shoulder-length hair into two small buns and zipped her gray hoodie up to her chin.

**OOO**

"My, you're dressed up all nice and pretty today," Angela commented as Shilloh came in to the lab. "You going to make that much effort when you go out with us?"

"Maybe. The airline called this morning; apparently they can't find my luggage, so it looks like I get to go shopping. The jerks tried to give me only $400, but I looked at the policy, and it's $250 a bag. I had to talk to three people before I finally got someone who would give me the correct amount for two missing bags. On the up side, the conversation distracted me from the smell on the shuttle," Shilloh sidled in next to Zach on the platform, who had stopped working to pay attention to the conversation the two women were having; it made her feel quite suddenly like she had been accepted as a part of the group.

"Ew, you have to ride the shuttle? We have our own parking spaces close enough to walk to the building," Angela informed, trying to ignore Hodgins who had been showing her the different bug specimens relevant to their current case.

"Yeah, well, I'm just an intern. Plus, there's no way I'd drive in this city; I've got road rage issues and this city doesn't exactly know how to drive. No offense," she said, then thought about it and added, "plus, I'm only here for a short time, it'd be a hassle to try to buy and sell a car."

"We don't know how to drive? Where are you from?" Hodgins put his bugs back at his station and went to grab his lunch as everyone else made their way up the stairs.

"Spokane; it's in Washington. We've got only about a hundred thousand less people than you do, so, yeah, I'm pretty confident when I say you don't know how to drive- we're faster and have less traffic jams."

"Yeah, and you're also probably bigger, Washington state is like the Wild Wild West, man," Hodgins defended, not much liking the insult to his home.

"Ok, no; it's just Washington. If I mean DC I say DC if I mean Washington I mean Washington. Simple as that. And also, my city's smaller than DC- suck it bug boy," she smiled at him. "Plus, Wild Wild West, really? You know we get Japanese exchange students that still think we all use outhouses and live on ranches?" She laughed to herself, and Hodgins could see the humor in it as well.

"So when are you planning on going clothes shopping?" Angela asked excitedly, bored of the conversation about driving.

"Whenever they send me the check- I'm hoping it'll be here by Wednesday, but I'm not holding out too much hope. Five hundred dollars isn't a whole lot to buy a new wardrobe with, I'm going to have to get creative and buy things that can layer," Shilloh sighed, picking at the wrapper on her string cheese.

"I know a couple places that you would love, mind if I tag along- I've got to get some fall clothes, myself," Angela asked, noting that the only thing Shilloh was eating today was an apple and a string cheese.

"Yeah! I'm horrible at clothes shopping; it'd be nice to go with someone fun to make it not so tedious," she agreed, and got a weird look from Angela.

"Wait, you don't like clothes shopping? I thought all girls like to go shopping?" Hodgins asked, and was rewarded with a light slap to the back of the head by Angela.

"I don't really mind it, it just always seems to take so long, and I'd much rather be looking at other things; like books or art supplies. Or video games," she sighed, thinking of the games she'd had to leave at home.

"Hey, how come I never see Dr. Brennan in the lab?" Shilloh changed the subject as she opened her string cheese.

"She tends to do a lot of field work with Agent Booth," Zach replied, and Shilloh jumped slightly, forgetting he was there due to his silence throughout lunch. She frowned lightly and hummed at the information.

"Alright, then; I just wanted to make sure she wasn't somewhere in the lab, I'd feel like I was ignoring her if she was," she said, peeling at her cheese and laying each piece onto a napkin within equal distance of each other.

"Why?" Zach asked, watching as she tried to evenly divide the pieces of cheese with minimal success.

"Well, because if she was in the lab I would want to say hello and invite her to eat lunch with us; I find her intimidating but I thoroughly respect her and think her profession is fascinating. No doubt she would be an interesting conversationalist," she replied, going down her string cheese line and picking out the ones that were least like the others, deciding to eat those ones first.

"Didn't your parents ever tell you not to play with your food?" Hodgins interrupted as she began to make a star shape out of the pieces that were left; she looked up at him from her craft project, then back down at the napkin on the table.

"Dude. It's string cheese. It's practically illegal _not_ to play with it," she finished her star, leaving it out for her companions to "admire," and then began eating her apple.

She was finished with her lunch before anyone else, most definitely aided by the fact that her lunch was so small, and she decided that she should get back and finish some last-minute touches on the brochure before she headed out to dinner for the night.

"Alright, well I need to go finish a project, so I'll see you guys on Monday. Jack, I'd leave my beautiful string cheese artwork for you, but I don't think you'd really appreciate it," she said as she scooped up the napkin to throw it away.

"No, I really wouldn't," he agreed, "see you Monday then," he waved goodbye, watching as she tripped herself up going down the stairs.

**OOO**

Her coworker's idea of dinner was actually a mildly expensive restaurant that really could have counted as a night club; almost.

She had been expecting something low-key and relatively quiet, thinking that she had been invited as a way to try and get to know her, and usually loud noises were counter-productive to said endeavor.

At least the food was good; and the booth was comfortable; and she also no longer had to listen to Stephanie and Megan being passive-aggressive towards each other, since they had both decided to go dance.

It was like a night club for vanilla Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, though, and so Shilloh tried not to laugh. She wouldn't have gone dancing if it were a regular club, she wasn't much of a dancer, but she definitely wasn't going to dance here- it looked absolutely boring.

She picked at her rice and tried to ignore that she was now alone at the table, as the two other women that had invited her along had gone 'to the bathroom' after giving each other lecherous looks. It was too bad, they had been interesting to talk with, but she had a feeling they wouldn't be back for a while.

She was also focusing intently on her rice to ignore the guy who was trying to get her attention. No such luck, apparently.

"Hello," he said, standing in front of their table; not blocking her way out of the booth, but still making her feel uncomfortable with the situation.

"Hi," she responded, blinking up at him, trying her best imitation of Zach- completely clueless about what this guy wanted.

"Would you like to dance?" He motioned over to the couples, and she tried not to laugh again at how absurd it was.

"Oh; no, that's alright," she went back to her rice. She was being a bitch, she realized, and suddenly felt bad for her behavior; but then he touched her wrist and she felt completely justified in brushing him off- personal space was always to be observed.

"Then how about I just sit here with a pretty lady?" He tried again, and she frowned at him.

"No, I don't think I would like that; please leave now," she looked him in the eyes, and he continued to hold onto her wrist. When he didn't say anything, she stood up, deciding that she'd simply skive off to the restroom for a moment to get rid of him before returning.

The perv's hand dropped from her wrist to her butt and he was about to say something when she jerked away from him and slapped him. She then turned and walked towards the dance floor. Her night was over, and she was going to have to find Stephanie and Megan to let them know.

She really wished she had gone to dinner with Angela the night before instead.

**OOO**

Saturday morning dawned and she was still absolutely furious. She had never been taken advantage of before in such a manner, and while it had just been a light grazing, she wished that she had done more than just slap that guy.

She did minor cardio exercises to try and work off her energy until her landlord appeared to fix her oven; which had taken less than half an hour. After that she had spent the rest of the day making what she dubbed 'angry cookies,' until she had run out of eggs and Tupperware to store them in.

It was a good thing she was giving the cookies to two guys, otherwise they'd probably never be eaten, she'd made so many.

With a heavy sigh, she decided to freeze a batch for herself, and then sunk onto the couch.

Not having much else to do, she grabbed a sketch pad and a pencil and spent the rest of Saturday doodling; she spent Sunday in much the same fashion, but she had managed to get her hands on some tape. And so she also spent Sunday placing her doodles on her wall; and painting her nails.

She went in to work on Monday with sunflowers on every other nail.

**So I've decided to post everything I have up. You're probably going to get all the way up to day ten today (or tomorrow, it depends on how long it takes me to finish editing them). And then after that I've got to start writing more.**

**Past day ten, the plan is to do a short chapter or two to finish up the current week, then skip into "future world" briefly- a couple chapters there- and then **_**finally**_** we will begin to see the actual cases; starting with Man in the Fallout Shelter. **

**I'm not so sure how I'm doing with characterization here, so if you see something you don't think works, let me know; thanks in advance, guys!**


	10. Day 8

"You're here super early. And I see it's back to the blouses again," Angela said as Shilloh showed up in the lab, once again kicking her shoes into their usual corner.

"Yeah, I promised the boys cookies for today. I made enough for everyone, though," she replied, handing Angela a batch, and then looking into the plastic bag she was holding, she grabbed two more, handing those to Angela as well, "those are for Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth."

"Wow, looks like you had a quiet weekend," Angela commented, taking the top off of her batch and grabbing a cookie.

Shilloh hummed in response, then replied, "these were therapeutic angry cookies though." 

"You made me angry cookies? After I shared my lunch with you?" Hodgins said as he and Zach showed up, both carrying containers with some form of bug in them.

"It was never agreed upon in what condition the cookies had to be made. You simply assumed home made automatically correlated with love," she pointed out as she placed the largest two batches at Jack and Zach's stations respectively; she then looked around for a place to throw the plastic bag away while holding a smaller baggie of cookies.

"Also, I have some extras here in case I missed anyone," Shilloh held them out next to her as she turned to her left to throw the plastic bag in the trash. Angela grabbed them from her before she lost her balance.

"Dr. Goodman would like them, I'm sure," she said.

"Dr. Goodman?"

"He's the administrator," Hodgins supplied, "and why are my cookies angry cookies?"

"How can cookies be angry?" Zach asked before Shilloh could respond to Hodgins.

"It was a form of therapy- I was very angry and so I decided to make a lot of cookies; the act of measuring everything out and mixing everything together worked very well as a type of meditation. And I was angry because I was harassed at dinner last Friday," she answered both questions, stealing a cookie from Zach because she knew he, unlike Hodgins, wouldn't complain about it.

"I see, so they are called angry cookies because you were angry when you made them," he deduced.

"Yes. Much like when you say something is made with love; only it's more aesthetically pleasing to say something like 'angry cookies,' as apposed to 'cookies made with anger,' plus, it's shorter to say, too," she stole another cookie and was about to grab a third before Zach slid the container onto the other side of his desk.

"You were harassed?" Angela asked, trying not to let herself get hung up on the idea that flashed through her head, 'Made with Mother's Anger!'

"Don't worry, I slapped the guy," Shilloh nodded, pushing herself up onto Zach's desk and swishing her feet back and forth.

"Wait- what?" Hodgins was paying attention now, looking up from the container holding the bugs he had gathered.

"Friday night we went out to some over-priced boring restaurant that happened to have a dance floor; there was a guy that asked me to dance, I said no. When I got up to leave, he touched my butt, so I slapped him," she said, looking only at Angela. She was still angry about what had occurred, but she was also a little embarrassed to talk about it in front of her guy friends. "I was still angry about it on Saturday, and thus, angry cookies."

Hodgins, to her amusement, actually looked relieved at her story, and then settled into anger. "When you said you'd slapped the guy I thought you meant he'd tried to take more liberties than just that. And for the future, if that ever happens again, skip slapping and just punch," he said, trying out a cookie; "although, these cookies do taste spectacular."

She smiled at him, and in a very condescending tone, said, "of course they are, I made them, and I am naturally gifted at everything I do," she nodded over at him from her perch atop Zach's desk, striking a regal pose.

"That is not statistically possible," Zach said, pushing her legs out of the way so he could open a drawer.

"Zach! You're horrible for my self-esteem!" She complained, and when his lips quirked up slightly, she made a face over at him and said, "the next time I make cookies, everyone else is going to get a sampling of my favorite kinds, and you are going to get just plain old sugar cookies!"

"I like sugar cookies," he said, before turning away from her and towards the metal table that now housed the completed skull of Mary Whiteland; it was time to begin placing markers on.

Shilloh slumped over amongst the laughter of both Angela and Hodgins, before deciding she had best get off to work. Stealing one last cookie from Zach, she slipped on her shoes and waved goodbye, making sure Zach could see that she had taken a cookie; and then she made the trip to her office, munching happily as she went.

**OOO**

She had been just about ready to leave for lunch when Cherryl cornered her, her face completely blank except her lips, which quivered slightly. It scared Shilloh; they looked like two large purple bugs wrestling each other.

"The files on the brochure project are a complete mess," she started, and Shilloh had to think a minute before remembering that yes, she had sent that project off last Friday. Cherryl continued, "Print's complaining that they have missing links; which they didn't realize until after a trial print. They're saying that even if they discount the missing files, several of the ones they do have are too small a resolution to print properly," her lips quivered again, and Shilloh wondered at why Cherryl would choose such a vivid shade of plum purple lipstick.

"But I packaged all the files; I even sent a high-quality print PDF just in case. And I didn't make the files- I was told they were already edited, all I essentially had to do was place them," she defended herself, not quite understanding why Cherryl had come to her with the problem- this was an image problem, which she hadn't had any part in. She had simply used them in her design of the brochure.

Of course, she probably should have noticed that the resolution was too low; why hadn't she noticed that? She tried to think back on any of the poorer-quality pictures she'd worked with, but she couldn't remember a single one that had looked pixel-y.

"Well I don't know where the problem came from then, but you need to have it fixed before five tomorrow," and then Cherryl stalked away, her purple lipstick matching her purple heels.

"Jesus H. Christ," she sighed, before deciding it could wait until after lunch; she was positive that she had sent a packaged file.

**OOO**

"Today I will make Batman with my string cheese!" Shilloh announced as she skipped up the steps; she'd had a lot of time to think it over on the trek to the lab, and had come to the very serious conclusion that her lunch needed more action heroes.

"String cheese and an apple for lunch again?" Angela asked as she let Shilloh in, clear disapproval in her voice.

"It's not the only thing I eat during the day- I get hungry before coming here and eat my sandwich at my desk," she tried to defend herself. It was a complete lie, but she didn't want Angela to know just how strapped for cash she was; and it wasn't as if she was starving herself, she always ate something for breakfast and dinner, too.

"Cheesy Batman? Holy original ideas, Robin!" Hodgins called from above Shilloh and Angela; him and Zach already being at the usual lunch spot.

"How very puny of you, Jack. And I think all of those sentences usually ended with Batman, not Robin," Shilloh yelled back, following Angela up the stairs, the two exchanging amused but exasperated looks.

Shilloh flopped herself onto the couch gracelessly, limbs flailing about however they pleased, and sighed comfortably as she settled herself in. Turning to her right, she tucked her feet up under herself and looked over at Zach, scrunching her nose in thought.

"You eat macaroni and cheese for lunch every day," she stated.

"Yes."

"I just now got your nickname."

Zach looked at her for a moment, not quite sure what she meant; apparently she understood that he was confused, because she expanded on her statement, "Zackaroni. Like macaroni- I just now got it," she said.

Apparently done with the conversation, she moved her legs to lie between them, and began eating her apple as she tried to decide how she was going to create her Batman masterpiece.

"Hodgins is that all you're going to eat for lunch?" Angela asked, trying to sound like she was scolding him and failing.

"What? They're good, and burritos can keep for a couple days in the fridge," he replied, grabbing another cookie, moving his pile away when Angela tried to grab one, "go grab your own, I know she made you some," he said in response to her frown.

"Guys, I can't remember how long his cape is," Shilloh interrupted before either of them could devolve into petty squabbling. When neither one seemed inclined to answer her, she continued, "this is serious business here. How are my abilities as an artist supposed to be taken seriously if I cannot accurately portray Bruce Wayne's Batman costume?"

"You're portraying it in string cheese. I think that ship sailed long ago," Hodgins said, fishing around for a cookie with more chocolate chips than the others.

Zach was highly confused by the conversation, and he wanted to ask several clarifying questions, but this time he decided to try and pay more attention to how Shilloh and Hodgins were saying things than on exactly what they were saying.

He had managed to deduce, that while the conversation held some form of light banter and over-all meaning, it was essentially just 'random,' things that Shilloh had decided to say, and Hodgins would intermittently decide to make fun of (in fact, he had figured out long ago that most of what Shilloh said was metaphorical and random in some form or another. The only reason it did not frustrate him was because she was usually able to clarify for him when he asked, which meant that she at least wasn't speaking nonsense).

He wasn't really certain, but he thought that it was maybe a good thing when Shilloh laughed after Hodgins made fun of her; and he knew it was for sure a good thing when Hodgins complemented her cheese Batman and took a picture of it with his cell phone.

It seemed to him that the two of them were definitely friends, but it came as a complete surprise to him when she turned to him with a large smile and demanded that he complement her Batman as well.

"A forced complement would not be sincere," he said, blinking once, twice, before realizing she was doing that random joke thing with him; he looked over at her food art and had to concede that it did actually look good, in an odd fashion. "However, I would have complemented it had you not asked me to," he said, and felt good when her smile turned from what he would catalogue from now on as her 'comical smile' to her truly happy smile.

It made reading people easier if he was able to catalogue bits of them, but people had the tendency to change suddenly and surprise him. Even still, he had found it surprisingly easy to begin his process with Shilloh.

She was a very animated person who seemed to have no problems with showing that to the world; he had noticed it when he had been piecing together Mary Whiteland's skull. Shilloh had been very quiet, but her eyes had scrunched themselves up, smoothed themselves out, squinted one at a time, closed and widened. It was as if her face animated itself to her thoughts- it had made it very easy for him to recognize her emotions, if not exactly what they were or why they were there.

So now he spent lunches cataloguing her away just the same as he had the first time he had met Hodgins and Angela; of the two of his friends she was definitely more like Angela, but she had a wider variety of smiles, and it was very difficult for him to distinguish between her happy one and her joking one.

He would have to ask her to clarify when she was joking so he could try and narrow them down.

**OOO**

She couldn't figure out what happened, but when she'd asked Print to send her what they were working with, she was surprised they'd even attempted to make a test brochure. The thing looked horrible.

So she re-packaged the files; sent it down to them, and requested a mock-up of that to show to Cherryl for approval. This time nothing went wrong with the links, and the resolution wasn't all wonky, so as long as she hadn't messed up the margins the print job should work out just fine.

And it did; it worked out beautifully. The pictures weren't as great as what she had liked, but that's what happens when you work in .jpeg and in a lower resolution than strictly professional. Shilloh wasn't entirely happy with it, but ultimately no one except another designer would ever notice it, so it wasn't an issue worth worrying over.

Except to Cherryl.

"I can't completely re-do this, Cherryl. I don't have the original files, they're all low-resolution .jpegs, I complained earlier about it. I'm not going to go through and touch up something that will suck no matter what I do. Plus, the design I did is solid, it's not complicated at all, and it enhances the text without over-crowding it. I can't re-do everything before 5 tomorrow. It's unreasonable," she wasn't yelling, she wasn't pacing, and she wasn't looking at the floor.

"I have the original files, I'll give you a thumb drive with them on. If you can't get it done by tomorrow, how about Wednesday, then?" Suddenly Shilloh was struck with a terrifying idea- Cherryl thought she was being reasonable.

"But they have to be shipped on Friday, that'll give us only Thursday for any errors and printing," that was a really close deadline, wasn't it? She'd only ever pushed it that close in her college classes, she didn't think a big institute like the Jeffersonian would do the same.

"I was also thinking of a font change, I don't much care for Myriad Pro," Cherryl talked over her. Shilloh couldn't believe what was happening, redoing an assignment that had taken her an entire week, in two days? And who the hell didn't like Myriad Pro? If she said to change it to Comic Sans someone was going to get slapped.

Looking at Cherryl, she decided this was something she wasn't going to win, and so said, "alright, I'll see what I can get done in time for Wednesday, but I'm not changing the font; it'll save me several hours of formatting if I don't have to."

Cherryl smiled with her plum colored lips and set to work putting the original images onto a thumb drive. "Perfect! Try to add more blue hues, reminds our mailers that we're a science institute."

God, she was going to have to stay in the office until this project was done.


	11. Days 9 and 10

She spent all Tuesday coming up with another "more science-y" design that didn't clash with the font and image layout she already had, and since she had stayed the night she was jittery with stress nerves.

She'd tried to restrain herself from yelling at Bob when he decided to have fish for lunch; and had ground out to Megan that she was running late on a deadline, so yes, she was indeed wearing the same shirt as yesterday; and for the love of God _no_ it wasn't the walk of shame.

Her lunch had consisted of three cups of coffee that were so strong on the creamer that they were mostly just creamer; no one in the office had said anything about it though.

In fact, no one said much of anything to her after Cherryl came over after her own lunch break and said that the new design was coming along nicely, but she wasn't so sure about all the organic swirls; and how were the image edits coming along?

Shilloh wanted to know where her mentor had been during the entire week she had been making the brochure in the first place, but it was only her second week on the job and she wasn't allowed to be a bitch yet.

The last one to leave that day was Marissa, one of the two women that had left to 'go to the bathroom' the day Shilloh had gone out to dinner with her coworkers; Marissa was a sweetheart and had been one of the few people the entire day to not suffer through Shilloh's constant glare.

"What's your favorite creamer?" She asked, looking at Shilloh's computer screen as she switched colors, trying to decide between a light blue and a light brown.

"Coconut, but if you're planning on being the nicest person in the world and bringing it in tomorrow, good luck- it's practically impossible to find. So barring that, go ahead and bring in anything with chocolate in the name," she was still doggedly switching between colors, but she spared a brief moment to smile up at Marissa.

"Ok. And I'd go with the blue, with brown as a highlight," she said, patting Shilloh on the head before slipping on her coat and leaving the building, closing the door behind her.

Shilloh sighed, twirling in her seat- the building was scary and very, very lonely at night.

**OOO**

Wednesday was much, much worse than Tuesday. She was tired and stressed and very much grouchy as well as extremely hungry.

Her legs wanted to stretch so badly that they practically screamed, and her eyes felt scratchy from looking at the screen for so long. Plus, she felt entirely too gross- she was still in the same outfit as Monday.

Bob made some sort of curry for lunch, and she was beginning to realize why the office always smelled funny.

Megan made another allusion to the walk of shame, and this time Shilloh just flipped her off, which seemed to make Stephanie happy for a while. Until she mentioned that Shilloh's shirt had a coffee stain on the collar, and then she too was flipped off.

During lunch Shilloh was momentarily appeased when she discovered the largest container of coconut creamer she had ever seen; she'd have to make cookies for Marissa as a thank you.

She was officially done with the brochure at four o'clock, sending two different packaged files off to Print, and a PDF over to Cherryl. She didn't stick around to see what her mentor had to say about the finished product, though; she had better things to do- like take a shower.

She was on her way down the hall and headed out of the building when she was ambushed from behind.

"Where have you _been_? Skipping our lunches together without telling anyone is rude; two days in a row? We were almost starting to get worried," Angela's voice seemed to be going a million miles an hour to Shilloh, whose brain didn't want to function properly at the moment.

She opened her mouth to try and say something, but nothing came out. Not that Angela noticed, she was still tugging Shilloh along towards the lab.

"Hodgins will be glad to see you; he's already run out of cookies and wants to ask you for more. He was stealing Zach's, but boy genius has started hiding them. Don't let Hodgins ask you in a round-about way, I want to actually hear the words 'please' and 'thank you' escape his lips for once," Angela was still rushing on, pulling Shilloh through the doors into the lab, not noticing that the girl behind her wasn't talking.

"Hey guys! Found her!" She called out, swiping her card and looking around.

"You did? Where was she?" Hodgins asked, looking over from his station; "Jesus, are you ok?" Shilloh looked very much not ok in Hodgins' opinion, but he had been on the receiving end of a couple of slaps after saying a woman didn't look so good before; so he settled with making it a question.

"Is that the shirt you wore on Monday?" Angela asked, finally paying attention to Shilloh.

"Ugh…. Yeah," she nodded, trying to keep her head from lolling onto her shoulder and her spine from crumpling in on itself.

"Come here, honey, let's go lay you down," Angela said, steering her towards the couches at their lunch spot. "Why do you…" she trailed off, not quite knowing how to say, 'why do you look like crap,' without making it sound so harsh. "Are you going to be ok?" She settled on.

"Yeah. Yeah, I've just been working since Monday on a last-minute project; God, I feel so disgusting, Angela, I need to change and take a shower," Shilloh sighed into the couch as she settled herself in.

"You haven't slept since Monday?"

Shilloh shook her head, and Angela frowned.

"And what was the last thing you ate?"

"I had… Batman and coconut coffee," Shilloh's eyes closed, the couch felt really good, "I should take the bus back to my apartment," she nodded to herself, eyes still closed, but she didn't move.

"Yeah, you just stay there for a while; I'll get you some food in a bit, ok?" Angela said, but there was no response to her statement other than light breathing.

"So what's the prognosis Dr. Quinn?" Hodgins asked before Angela had even made it all the way down the stairs. Zach didn't think it would be appropriate to point out that Angela was neither a doctor, nor named Quinn.

"She's been here since Monday, and apparently the last thing she ate was lunch with us," she frowned up at the walkway where she had left Shilloh, then turned back to the boys, "she fell asleep before I could ask her exactly _why _she stayed here."

"That is unhealthy," Zach stated before thinking his comment through completely; if he had he would have expected the retort from Hodgins.

"No duh; it's no wonder you're a genius," Hodgins' voice hadn't taken on the harsh tone that many of his peers' had throughout his younger years, so Zach felt no ill will towards his friend.

Angela looked at the two in an exasperated fashion, and Zach couldn't quite figure out why. "If you two are done, I'd like to get her fed and then take her home. I don't want her riding the bus- she'll probably fall asleep and miss her stop."

"Right, I forgot she takes the bus," Hodgins said by way of agreement.

"I believe I have a lunch for her," Zach volunteered; he had gotten so used to the schedule of Shilloh announcing the start of lunch, that when she hadn't shown up on Tuesday he had worked straight through. He had decided to leave it in the staff kitchen for the unlikely event that he would forget to pack a lunch in the future.

"Oh good- next break you have in your work, could you go bring it up to her? I want to try and finish my work early so I can bring her home before it gets too dark out," Angela said, glancing down at her watch, trying to calculate how long it would take her to finish everything.

Zach looked at his computer screen as Angela paced off towards her office. He glanced at the clock, then over at the autopsy table that still housed Mary's remains, and back over at his computer screen.

"Go; I'll get your paperwork done," Hodgins sighed in what Zach was guessing to be mock-suffering, "just remember my kindness the next time I want a favor done," he said, and Zach nodded, even though he was pretty sure Hodgins was joking.

**OOO**

He held the mac and cheese between both hands, not quite knowing what to do now that he was standing in front of her.

She had one arm draped over the back of the couch, he could see her hand moving slightly, as if the fingers hidden on the other side where sliding across the fabric. Her other hand was lying atop her chest, the fingers tightly woven in the top of her shirt, and he was certain it was a defensive display.

As he stood there uncertainly, the leg that dangled off the couch lost its shoe with an audible _plop; _and he finally noticed her face as it changed slightly during the course of her dream.

He knew most people looked less guarded and more –innocent, as his mother had once described it- during sleep, but she somehow seemed different. He couldn't place it.

And then he took a step too close to her, and she jumped up, shouting, "don't change the type!" her hand that had been clutching her shirt moving up to the side of her face in a recognizable parody of horror.

"Augh! My eyes hurt, why do my eyes hurt?" She asked, her hands fisted into balls and crushing themselves to her eyes; she sat up on the couch, hunching her shoulders over to rest her elbows on her knees.

He wasn't certain if that was one of those rhetorical questions or not, and was about to ask, when she answered her own question.

"Oh, contacts. I need to start carrying my glasses with me," she rubbed her eyes with her fists one last time, and then looked up at him.

He knew now what was different about her when she slept- there were fewer lines about her eyes. She didn't have worry lines, like Agent Booth, or laughter lines like Angela. He couldn't place them, but he knew something was different. He didn't like it.

"I brought you some food," he said, holding the blue container out for her. She smiled at him and reached for it from her position on the couch; he took a step closer when it became obvious that her arms were too short.

"Thanks. Do you keep these in the staff kitchen or something?" She asked, taking the plastic fork he offered her as well. He thought the question was an invitation to stay for a conversation, and so decided to sit on the couch with her.

"Not normally, no. When you didn't show up for lunch on Tuesday I lost track of time; I decided to leave it here in case I forgot lunch one day," he replied, leaning down to pick up the shoe she had dropped while asleep.

"Oh," she replied, watching as he moved her errant shoe towards her. When she let the words process she felt horrible, "Oh, Zachs, I'm really sorry. Tell you what, how about we exchange numbers, that way next time I can't make it to lunch I can call?" She phrased it as a question, which made it sound awkward, but she didn't want to come off as demanding his number in case he was uncomfortable with giving it out.

The thought that she had inadvertently made him miss lunch made her feel terrible, but perversely it also made her feel accepted by him. She was apart of his schedule, now- they were friends.

"Why do you pluralize my name?" He asked, surprising himself. She had asked for his number; no one had ever asked for his number outside of work and family. Hodgins was the only friend who had his number, but he didn't think that counted, since they also worked together.

She seemed startled for a second before smiling at him and saying in a quiet voice, "because I keep trying to say Zachster. I stop myself, obviously- for two reasons. One, because we've barely known each other for two weeks and I don't know if a nickname is really all that appropriate yet. And two, Zachster is a really lame nickname."

She continued to look at him as he sat on his end of the couch, squished against the armrest with his legs splayed out diagonally in front of him- as if he was trying to ward off his awkwardness by putting physical distance between himself and her. She tried not to make it any more awkward for him by commenting on how cute he looked- which was hard, since she was running on about half an hour of sleep.

He seemed to be thinking things over for an inordinately long time, and she was about to turn her interests solely to her food, when he finally said something.

"If you feel comfortable enough to give me a nickname I would not refuse it, even if you consider it lame," he paused, and the oddness of it reminded her of how her CDs sometimes skipped and tried to right themselves, but wound up getting stuck until she fast forwarded. He paused for a while, and she was contemplating asking him something to get him to start talking again.

Luckily he spared her tired brain and resumed his train of thought, "if we exchange phone numbers, does that make us friends?" He wasn't supposed to ask people if they were friends, Angela had said it was some sort of social faux pas, but he was curious about the answer and Angela wasn't here to tell him he was doing something wrong, so he figured he'd get away with it so long as Shilloh didn't mention anything.

"Only if you want to be friends," she replied, stirring her food around, wondering how someone so straight-forward as Zach could be so confusing. One moment she was thinking they were friends because she was a part of his schedule, the next he was basically telling her they weren't friends yet. She tried not to squirm in her seat waiting for his answer; it made her feel like a little girl passing notes in class or something.

"Yes."

Well, that was simple, then. She couldn't help the large smile that spread across her face at his words. After two weeks of thinking he didn't care one way or the other, she could finally stop feeling awkward around him and place him into a category in her life.

They sat in silence for a while as Shilloh finished the food, then they both stood up when she made to throw away the garbage.

Slipping her shoe back on, she looked over at the couch, and rubbed at her eyes again, then looked back over at Zach who was already making his way down the stairs. She frowned- she was really tired, but sleeping right now wasn't such a good idea, her contacts would just wind up hurting her eyes even more. She'd just head home, instead. Hopefully she wouldn't fall asleep on the bus.

So she skipped down the steps after her friend, calling after him, "we forgot to exchange numbers." When Zach just looked at her, she thought he had forgotten what she was talking about and was about to remind him.

"You should be sleeping until Angela can take you home," he said.

Her face must have been amusing, because Hodgins was laughing at her, but she was too tired to come up with a retort to make him stop, so she settled on asking what Zach was talking about.

"Angela doesn't want you to take the bus; she said once she's done with work she'll give you a ride back to your apartment," he clarified, and that didn't help much, really, because she knew her face was still doing something amusing judging by the reaction that Hodgins was _still_ having.

"I can take the bus, though. I'm not incapable, or anything," she protested, sounding very much like a two-year-old. It was something she was coming to realize she did a lot in the company of these people- making herself seem like a small child.

"Don't worry about it, she just wants to make sure you get home safe is all," Hodgins said, interrupting before Zach could say anything about how she hadn't been taking care of herself thus far.

"Well fine, but I can't sleep. My eyes are killing me, and sleep'll just make it worse," she complained, whining just for the hell of it. Noticing Hodgins' look, she expanded by saying, "contacts," before moving around the autopsy table while fishing around in her messenger bag.

Reaching Zach's side she silently handed him her cell phone, and when he looked down at it, she wiggled her hand, then said, "program your cell number into it," then continued to look at him until he got the message and handed his cell over to her as well.

"How come I don't get your number?" Hodgins asked.

"Because you called me pipsqueak. I told you there would be retribution," she said idly as she tried to find the contacts section of Zach's phone. "But tell you what, because I'm so nice, I'll look past it just this once and give you my number anyway." She held out her free hand for Hodgins to give her his phone as she finished programming her number into Zach's.

The exchange of numbers lasted all of three minutes, and she was bored immediately thereafter. And she was guessing she was to be stuck in the lab for at least an hour. Normally she wouldn't complain, she loved science (even though she was absolutely horrible at it), but she just wanted to go home and take a shower. Then sleep.

Instead she settled with trying to entertain herself by looking over Hodgins' shoulder for a while. Until he swatted her away and said she was agitating his environment; she made some comment under her breath that neither of them seemed to understand (he because he couldn't hear it, and her because she lost track of what she was saying half-way through), before moving over to Zach's station.

Zach was more patient, at least, she liked to think he was; she knew it probably had more to do with the fact that he didn't even notice her standing nearby. After fifteen minutes of watching both her friends shuffle things around minutely, she decided to spend her time sitting in a corner instead.

And so she spent the next hour leaning against the railing and doodling in her sketch book- lots of things that involved curly-haired men playing with giant beetles, and tall floppy-haired scientists fiddling with bones.

She was adding a sad face to one of the beetle sketches when Angela appeared on the platform, announcing that it was finally time to leave; and with a hasty goodbye she practically sprinted out the exit, only stopping once she realized that she didn't know where Angela's car was.

She had expected the car ride to be filled with mildly awkward silence, but Angela was good at talking, and so in between the instructions on how to get to her apartment, Shilloh found herself relaxing enough to talk about her family a little; and about her plans after college, too.

Part of it had to do with Angela's amazing social prowess, but part of it also had to do with the fact that Shilloh always got really talkative when she was tired- she usually tried to just keep her mouth shut when she didn't get enough sleep, since she wound up saying something she didn't want to most times.

But this was how you made friends- you shared parts of your life, and Angela wasn't prying for anything personal, so Shilloh felt comfortable enough to tell her that college wasn't something she really wanted to do in the first place. She wanted to travel, actually, and as soon as she graduated, that's what she was doing.

And she felt comfortable enough to say that she had a sister- that wasn't anything too personal, was it? She thought for a minute and decided that it most definitely wasn't.

She felt comfortable enough to say that so far, she liked DC more than any of the other cities she had visited; and she had really liked Philadelphia, too, so that was a huge complement.

"Don't tell Hodgins though- he's still mad that I insulted the way people here drive, and I think it's kind of funny. I don't want him thinking I've gone soft on the city or anything," she confided to Angela, who dutifully laughed and agreed that it was a girls' secret.

"What other cities have you visited?" Angela asked, sounding genuinely interested, which was refreshing; usually when people asked her questions, Shilloh felt like they were just trying to find a way to start talking about themselves again.

"Well Philadelphia, that was lots of fun- saw the Liberty Bell. I had to drag my parents to see it, too. There was a guy who gave us an entire thing of bagels, they went stale before we left at the end of the week there were so many. And I've been all over Oregon and Washington; parts of Idaho and Montana. Umm.. My aunt lived in L.A. before moving to Seattle, so I've been there quite a few times. I didn't much like it- I felt like I was always in the way. Then there's Salt Lake, my mom and I have been there so many times, that the lady at this German bakery we visit thinks we actually live there," she trailed off, trying to think of anything else she'd missed, "and then a couple places as a kid, but I don't think those count since I don't remember them."

"You had to drag you parents to see the Liberty Bell? Isn't that usually something people go see when they visit Philly?" Angela asked, completely puzzled.

"We were there for the surgery on my cancer, so they weren't up to much of anything," Shilloh replied, trying to sound casual about it and failing.

"Is that what that scar's for, then?" Angela asked, not having known about this part of Shilloh; when Shilloh nodded, Angela frowned slightly and decided to change the subject. "Where do you want to travel once you've graduated?"

"Everywhere. Italy first, though," Shilloh said, and the rest of the trip was spent with Angela giving her travel advice and talking about the best traveling methods.

Angela was surprised by the apartment; not that she was surprised that it was run down, that part she had been expecting- what she hadn't been expecting was the complete lack of _anything_ in the apartment.

There was no computer, no television, no rug on the floor, even. When Shilloh kicked her shoes into a pile by the wall and dropped her bag by the couch that had a sheet on it, Angela couldn't believe exactly what she was seeing. How did someone entertain themselves when there was literally nothing to do?

"Thank you so much for the ride, Angela," Shilloh said, and she took that as her queue to leave.

"It's no problem, I'll see you at lunch tomorrow, ok?" And with that, she closed the door behind her and left for her own home.

**OOO**

"You guys, she has no TV," Angela greeted the boys the next day, and they both looked at her in askance, "Shilloh. At her apartment, she has no TV, or computer. Or anything. I was looking at her facebook-" she began, before Hodgins cut her off.

"Stalking her Ange?"

"I was looking at her facebook and she had Xbox live before coming here- her sister was actually making fun of her for having to leave behind all of her games; and she was complaining on it about not being able to pack her art easel. What does this girl do for entertainment?" She continued on, ignoring Hodgins.

"Paints her nails," Zach said, getting bewildered looks from both Hodgins and Angela. "She has had different nail polish for the past several days," he clarified.

"See, it's moments like these that let me know he doesn't completely tune out the world," Hodgins said, and they all broke apart to begin working.


	12. Days 11 and 12

Maria Baker was getting tired of this bullshit- this was the fifth time she had tried to call Shilloh's cell, and still no answer.

How were you supposed to keep tabs on people when they wouldn't respond to your calls? Worse yet, how in the hell was she supposed to make sure Shilloh wasn't dead somewhere, lying in a ditch because some meth-head had stuck her up for her shoes?

What kind of a world were they living in, when people didn't even have the common decency to answer their damn phones?

She decided to try a different tactic, and shuffled some papers around until she found the number she was looking for.

"Jeffersonian graphics department, Shilloh Phillips speaking, how may I help you?"

"Jesus Christ, finally got you on the phone!"

"Maria? Why are you calling my work phone?" To say Shilloh was surprised that her best friend was calling her was definitely and understatement; she hadn't given the woman her work phone, so she was past surprised. If asked, she would say she was settled somewhere in incredulous.

"Because you weren't answering your cell, that's why- speaking of, I called the other day, too. In fact, I've been calling all week, and no answer; have you been avoiding me?" Maria was now apparently satisfied that her friend Shilloh was not being accosted by packs of druggies, and so she decided to feel offended at the fact that her oldest friend had been potentially screening her calls.

"What? No, look, I can't talk, this is my _work phone_; I'll call you back in a few," and then Shilloh hung up. She sighed deeply, deciding that now was as good a time as any to have lunch, and quickly turned her cell phone on to call her friend back while she walked towards the lab.

She was still exceedingly tired from the brochure fiasco, so she had been running on autopilot the entire day. Before Maria's call, she had been staring blankly at her computer screen, trying to remember the details of the new assignment Cherryl had given her just moments before.

She had actually been dangerously close to falling asleep when the phone had startled her awake, so in a way she owed a thank you to Maria- not that she would ever say so, though; her friend would just use it as an excuse to call her at work again, and then she would get in trouble.

"Shilloh!" Maria greeted excitedly, as if they hadn't just had a brief conversation seconds ago, and then continued with, "so have you been avoiding me?"

"I haven't been avoiding you, I've been busy," and on the trek to the lab she complained about her coworkers, and how her mentor had dumped such a huge workload on her.

"Who're you on the phone with?" Hodgins asked as he let her into the lab.

"My best friend Maria- she thinks I've been avoiding her. I'm just explaining to her that I'm half way across the country and so I can't really be avoiding her," she said, talking over her friend who was now talking about her dog.

"Stop ignoring me- it's been two entire weeks without you, I need attention. When can I come over to visit? Who was that just now talking to you? First and last names, please," Maria said, and Hodgins stared pointedly at the phone, trying to tell Shilloh he could hear the entire conversation without actually having to say anything out loud.

"Mar-bear, I don't know last names, and even if I did, I wouldn't need you checking up on them for me. Look, can I call you back later, I'm on my lunch break right now, and I'm really super tired so I'm not much of a conversationalist right now as it is," without waiting for a reply from her friend she hung up.

Hodgins gave her a weird look, and felt mildly insulted- he wasn't a creeper that her friend needed to check up on; still, it was nice to know that Shilloh had someone who cared enough about her to want to make sure she wasn't associating with the wrong kind of people.

How exactly her friend would know if he was one of those 'wrong kind of people' with just a first and last name was something he would have to ask another time- Shilloh looked so tired that he seriously doubted he'd get a coherent answer out of her today.

"You know my last name," he pointed out as they made their way towards their lunch spot, passing Zach along the way.

Shilloh stopped a moment, looking over at their friend, and Zach made no move to join them; he seemed oblivious to the fact that either of them were standing there waiting for him to finish his work.

"I know, but she's scary when she decides she needs to make sure I'm safe, and I figured I'd spare you. I already know you're crazy and like your conspiracy theories- what else could she dredge up that would be _worse_ than that?" She said, then got tired of waiting for Zach to notice them, and hooked an arm through Zach's, forcing him to stop working. She attempted to pull him away from the autopsy table with very minimal success, and made a face up at him that amused Hodgins.

"Come on Zach, I think she wants you to join us," Hodgins said when Zach looked down at her with an expression that clearly said he was judging her mental state.

"Jesus Zachs, not only are you freakishly tall, you're practically impossible to move, too!" She complained, keeping her arm looped in his and tugging at him when he didn't move to grab his lunch fast enough.

"While it is true that I am a little above average in height, I believe my 'freakish' status derives from your abnormally short stature," he said, looking down at her to make his point.

"I'm not that short!" She said, but knew he was right- standing next to him now, if she looked straight at him, she'd get a good view of his neck, and it made her sad to know that her current height was only attained through high heels. "Yeah, ok, I'm short." She amended when he opened his mouth to correct her.

Zach was forced to sit next to her, as she had refused to let go of his arm until they had sat at her favorite couch; Hodgins had complained that he was being ignored until she had pointed out that she had spared him from a very awkward twenty-questions in the form of one Maria Baker.

After the reminder he settled on making good-spirited grumblings throughout lunch, which prompted Shilloh to laugh a couple times at his odd remarks (there was something about ducklings once, she could have sworn, but he said it too low for her to hear it properly)- and to eventually throw a carrot stick at him to get him to stop glaring at Zach, who was beginning to think that Hodgins really was mad at him for something.

"No, Zachs, he's not mad at you, if anything he's mad at me because I'm being more friendly to you than him; but really, he's just joking about it," she said, and then picked at her sandwich while Hodgins tried to make the misunderstanding up to his friend by initiating a conversation that he thought Zach would enjoy.

Shilloh tried to follow along, but wound up completely lost- and for the first time in her life, she wasn't bored by a conversation she couldn't understand. It was heartwarming watching her two friends' faces animate with excitement over some shared revelation about some anomaly or some-such thingamajig.

She peeled the crusts of her sandwich off, nibbling at them while she tried to dissect words she'd heard once in biology; and she scooted herself into the armrest further while trying to remember her amino acids with literally no success.

By the time she had started to eat the lettuce on her sandwich she had given up trying to understand anything they were saying, and settled with entertaining herself by continuing to dissect her sandwich. Normally she would have asked clarifying questions, but she was too tired today to really form a sound question, let alone be able to understand the intricate explanation she no doubt would receive.

So she let her mind wander (_let_ was a nice way of putting it; in reality her brain did what it wanted and she put up no fuss, knowing she would lose the battle). And it decided to head back home.

It had only been two weeks, but she was already having a hard time remembering the smell of the pine trees, and that was very unfortunate. She liked DC, as much as anyone could for living in a city after such a short time (after all, she was still essentially just a tourist), but she didn't much care for the big-city smell.

She supposed it had something to do with the animals; while DC didn't bathe itself in trees like her hometown, she was still convinced it was the animals.

They had squirrels, and raccoons, sure. But where were the deer? They were a nuisance in Spokane, something you had to scan the sides of the road for when you reached the furthest outskirts of the city, but they were still enthralling to watch.

And then there were those cute low-lying animals. She frowned, not being able to remember their names. It started with a 'p' she was certain, but other than that, there was nothing.

Interrupting the conversation that the boys were having, she said, "I can't remember a name, guys. It's an animal, and it sounds kind of like these two words- pineapple, and pinecone."

They both looked at her, and she realized then just how much she had let them into her life already. This was a conversation she would only ever have with Maria, who had known her since third grade- Maria, who usually knew what she was going to say before she even said it.

And she had asked these two men before her a Maria question. Was that a good thing?

"Porcupine," Zach answered confidently, and Hodgins started laughing.

"Yeah! I can't believe I couldn't remember the name," she said, ripping her sandwich in half before taking a bite out of what was now just a turkey and bread sandwich.

"How did you get porcupine out of that? It's lucky he was here, Shilloh, because otherwise you'd be stuck with me guessing every 'p' animal I could think of. Starting with pine beetle."

Shilloh felt happy, truly happy, for the first time since leaving home. She had asked a Maria question, and Zach had been able to answer it- and Jack, he had been willing to go down his no doubt expansive list of animals. Because she was an idiot with a horrible memory that was exacerbated by a severe lack of sleep.

She was positive that the smile she had on now was going to split her lips, but she couldn't make herself stop.

**OOO**

"Maria- I'm thinking of an animal. It sounds like pineapple and pinecone," Shilloh said later that night, back at her apartment.

"Porcupine," she replied, her tone of voice conveying that she knew she was right, and there was no need to Shilloh to confirm it for her.

Shilloh laughed, feeling very much like the two nerd-boys had just passed some sort of test, and then flipped a pancake. She had decided that breakfast would be a delicious dinner, and she could reheat the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. The best of both worlds.

"So I don't like this Cherryl lady. But what about your coworkers?" Maria asked, changing the subject without any form of preamble. She tended to do that a lot, and sometimes it was hard for Shilloh to keep up.

Shilloh hummed slightly, recognizing the judgmental tone her friend was using, "Naw, they're not all bad. There's this guy I work with- Bob, he makes the worst lunches, they stink the entire office up. I eat my lunches elsewhere, so I'm not around for the brunt of it, but it's still pretty bad. I think I'm going to start wearing perfume to try and counter-act it or something. Then there's Stephanie and Megan, they're ok, I guess. They're both passive-aggressive, but mostly towards each other, so for the most part it's kind of entertaining. Just so long as they don't complain to you about their problems, that is," she said, plopping chocolate chips into the pancakes before fishing around her fridge to see if she had purchased any bacon.

"So who do you eat your lunches with then?"

"The forensic anthropology people. Not all of them, mostly just Zach and Jack, and lately Angela, although she wasn't there today- I wonder why," Shilloh trailed off, almost burning her pancakes due to her lack of concentration. "They're really nice, Jack's a total loon, he's their bug and slime guy, and he's really easy to make fun of. Angela's great, she's going to go clothes shopping with me once I get my check from the airline; and Zach's a sweetheart, but he takes everything very literally," she said, listing off character traits. She knew Maria wouldn't be satisfied until she was convinced that no one was going to try and do something weird to her.

"They sound nice," but she didn't sound convinced, and Shilloh tried not to groan, hoping that her new friends would pass Maria's inspection, because being on Maria's 'bad' list wasn't a good thing.

**OOO**

She hadn't felt pretty in a while, and so when she woke up that Friday, she decided to wear her white dress and a light amount of makeup. Not a lot, but enough to bring out the green in her eyes.

She also decided to wear her totally awesome robot earrings; a friend had made them for her as a birthday present several years ago, and today seemed like a good day to wear them.

Forgoing the gray hoodie, she slipped on a pair of red heels and scooped her short hair into two equally messy and tiny side-buns.

There; today, she felt very much like a girl.

And apparently others thought she looked like a girl, too. Or at least one person did, because she was asked out on a date on the shuttle ride to the Jeffersonian by one of the nice boys over in paleontology- she politely turned him down, but it had made her day.

**OOO**

"Angela, I gots me some shopping money now!" She said first thing, skipping up the steps towards the platform; it had been two weeks, and she felt she was already improving greatly at walking in heels. Until she tripped and had to grab the railing to keep herself from falling down the stairs.

"Be careful; when do you want to go shopping, then?" Angela asked, being the one to let her into the lab today.

With a shrug Shilloh replied, "I guess it doesn't really matter, but I am going to have to go this weekend to get clothes. I simply cannot keep wearing the same things constantly- it's annoying and disgusting and just plain unprofessional," she replied, playing with an earring as they waited for the boys to finish up what they were doing.

"Those are adorable, where did you get them?" Angela commented, noticing the earrings Shilloh was playing with.

"Thanks, a friend made them for me, actually," Shilloh replied with a wide grin, as they all made their way up the stairs.

"Can we talk about something other than clothes, please?" Hodgins asked, and both women gave him scathing looks, before Shilloh smiled widely again and looked over at Angela.

"I was asked out on the shuttle this morning," she said, not even attempting to keep the pride out of her voice; and both Angela and Shilloh grinned when Hodgins groaned.

"Really? Do you know who it was?"

"Yeah, Ray, from paleontology," she replied, and both girls shared a smile- Ray was _very _attractive.

"Paleontology, really?" Hodgins interjected, disapproval in his voice.

"What is your problem with paleontology? Last week you called them psychos, this week you are clearly being negative of them. I don't get it," Shilloh frowned over at him, and before he could say anything else, she continued, "you know, I actually wanted to be a paleontologist for the longest time. If it hadn't been so impractical for me, I would probably be studying to be one _right now_, Jack Hodgins."

"I knew it! I knew you were a squint!" He cried, and Shilloh wasn't entirely certain, but she thought there might have been pride in his voice as he said it.

"How was it impractical?" Zach interjected, watching as the robots swung about, hitting her neck softly as she turned to face him with a new smile; one he didn't quite know how to label. Smiles were supposed to be happy, but this one seemed to him to be more like a frown. Or how someone should look when they were sad.

"I'm not all that great with science, of any form, and so spending money on classes that I was most likely going to fail, well- it just didn't seem practical. So I took something artsy, instead. Because that's what I'm better at," and he wasn't certain, but there seemed to be something rehearsed in what she was saying- like it had been said to her.

Her smile turned to the one he knew as dismissal, and she changed the subject, "Cherryl gave me another project; I am to create a poster for the fundraiser the Jeffersonian is doing next month. Should be fun, actually," she said, reaching for her lunch on the table.

"Really? Do you know who gets to do the flyer for the Halloween ball?" Angela asked, picking around the walnuts in her salad.

"Bob Selznak; at least I think that's his last name," Shilloh paused in the arduous task of undoing plastic wrap from her sandwich, and then nodded to herself, deciding she had gotten the name correct.

"Augh, no! He did it last year- covered the entire thing with spider-web font and _cats_; it looked like a third-grader invitation," Hodgins lamented, and Shilloh made a face before laughing at him.

"I'm very sorry for your dilemma, Jack. Rest assured that if I were to ever be put in charge of the flyer, I would use blood-splatter font for _everything_, and there would be clip-art ghosts and witches decorating every white surface there is," they both nodded approvingly at each other over her design choice.

"I don't understand. That sounds worse?" Zach said, trying not to sound mean; it looked as if Shilloh was proud of her fictional Halloween flyer, and he did not want to hurt her feelings- but it truly sounded worse than last year's.

She laughed, which eased his worry that she would be upset with him, and replied, "I was being mean, just then. I really shouldn't have been, though- Jack and I were making fun of the flyer Bob made last year," she explained; and Zach, now understanding that it was a joke, was able to place the parallels she had been making between the two flyers.

He smiled at her to show he understood, and she gave him a humorous one in reply- humorous because her cheeks were bulging, since she had just taken a bite out of her sandwich.

"Well I don't have anything going on tomorrow, so would you like to go shopping, say starting around ten?" Angela changed the subject, and Hodgins tried not to show his displeasure at the conversation- he had just gotten them_ away_ from the subject of clothes.

"Yeah, sounds good, where should I meet you?" Shilloh replied, dropping her plastic spoon on the floor.

Angela consciously forced herself not to grin when Zach picked it up for her- Zach was a nice boy, who never complained about helping people. But he usually had to be told to help others, and so Angela was very excited that he was making this progress by himself.

"I'll just stop by your place, it'll work out easiest, I think," Angela replied, and Shilloh agreed. She took the spoon from Zach with a slight smile, and then placed it on the table where she stared at it solemnly.

"Augh, my contacts are really bothering me today," Shilloh commented, and then grabbed at her bag, rooting around in it for a minute. "Here we go! After what happened earlier this week, I decided to start carrying my glasses with me," she said, before taking out her contacts and placing her glasses on.

"If being told you wanted to be a paleontologist didn't prove you were a squint, this definitely does," Hodgins commented, and Shilloh scrunched her nose at him before grabbing her apple sauce.

"Don't listen to him, they're very cute," Angela defended, watching as Shilloh remembered that her spoon had fallen, and so she was no longer able to eat her apple sauce.

"But come on, Ange, they're so typically geeky! Square and black- perfect nerd fodder," Hodgins continued on, the small note of pride in his voice not being lost on Angela.

Shilloh, meanwhile, was completely ignoring Jack as he continued to mildly poke fun at her; she had decided to fold the lid of her apple sauce over and use it as a make-shift spoon.

"Shilloh, while that's a very creative solution, you're going to get food all over yourself," Angela said, and was once more amused when Zach finally took notice of what was happening.

Looking mildly amused himself, (although Angela couldn't tell if it was at Shilloh's ingenuity or the fact that she was still attempting to eat her apple sauce even without a spoon) he grabbed the spare spoon that came in his pre-packaged utensil pack, and handed it to her.

"Well, now I feel foolish," she commented to no one in particular, before thanking Zach and resuming eating her food.

"But seriously- how nerdy are you? Do you watch Battlestar Galactica?" Hodgins asked, not really seeing anything unusual with using your lid as a spoon.

"No, but I do watch Doctor Who. Now stop making fun of me, it's not nice, and if you continue to do so, I won't make you cookies again. Not even if you ask really nice," she said, looking over at him pointedly.

There was about ten more minutes of idle banter between Hodgins and Shilloh, with Zach cutting in once to say that Firefly was very worthwhile (to which Shilloh had agreed and Hodgins had laughed).

After which, Shilloh reluctantly explained that she had to leave, "Cherryl said I was sending her the PDFs wrong, so we're going over that," she forced herself not to roll her eyes, and waved goodbye before throwing her trash out.

It took the rest of lunch before anyone noticed she had left her messenger bag behind, and it was decided that if she didn't come back for it before the end of the day, Angela would just bring it over the next day.

So it spent the rest of the day sitting quietly by Hodgins' desk, until Zach caught him looking though it. Then it had spent the rest of the day tucked up under the autopsy table, directly in front of Zach, where he would be sure that Hodgins wouldn't get to it.

"Come on Zach, I was only looking for some gum!"

"You were violating someone's privacy," Zach countered.

"I wanted to know if she had any left-over cookies."

"You were searching through her bag," he said, not relenting in his stance that it was wrong to look through someone else's things.

"Alright, fine. I wanted to see if she had any photos of her family," Hodgins said; and now Zach was curious, too. The bag still spent the rest of the day at his feet, though.

**OOO**

"Did I leave my bag in here, guys?" Shilloh asked several hours later. When she reached the top of the steps she noted with amusement that Hodgins was glaring at her bag, which was flopped over on the floor by Zach, who was completely ignoring his friend.

"Yeah, it's in here," Hodgins replied, letting her into the lab.

It was around the same exact time that both Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan showed up, arguing about- it sounding like they were arguing about psychology to Shilloh.

"Hello Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan," she greeted, as she bent down to grab her bag, wiggling herself underneath the table. She turned herself around, sitting on her knees underneath the table, and looked up at them from her position on the floor. "It's very nice to see you again," she said, making no move to get up. It was actually very comfortable underneath the table. And she was close enough to Zach to feel some of his body heat, which was nice, since the lab was cold when you were wearing something that didn't have sleeves.

"Hey kid- Shilloh, wasn't it?" Booth greeted, a smile in his voice. Shilloh guessed she had passed some sort of test with him, and was glad. She nodded up at him, and then stretched her legs out in front of her, deciding to make herself comfortable.

"It is nice to see you as well," Dr. Brennan greeted, but seemed distracted, and quickly moved away from both Shilloh and Agent Booth, towards her office.

"Well, guess I'll be seeing you around, then" Booth said by way of parting, and left to follow his partner. Shilloh smiled after them- they would be very cute together.

"What are you doing under the table?" Zach asked, continuing his work on Mary Whiteland. They had solved the case earlier, but the body needed final preparations before it could be returned to the family.

"Honestly? I'm comfortable down here. And also, it's kind of cold in the lab, and you're warm," she replied, hitting her feet together while adjusting her hair.

"We have extra lab coats you cold borrow," Hodgins offered, and Shilloh was going to take him up on it when Angela came up the stairs, a smile on her face.

"We're all going to the diner tonight to celebrate. Shilloh, you coming?"

"Yeah! I'm starving, and it'll give me an excuse to talk to Dr. Brennan- she is coming, isn't she?" Shilloh asked.

"Of course she is," Angela replied, looking down at the petit girl who was still tucked up underneath the autopsy table. It made a very strange visual, but Angela had to concede that it was also cute.

**So there you have it, guys- I've got two, maybe three more chapters before we get to the one I'm most excited about (The Man in the Fallout Shelter). And those three are: The diner chapter, the clothes shopping chapter, and possibly one or two future-shot chapters. **

**Sorry it's taking so long to set the characters up, I honestly didn't believe it would take this long; rest assured that I have lots of fun little things planned for the future!**

**And also, Maria was kind of hard to introduce, but she does wind of coming back a couple of times- she winds up to be important, because she really helps explain Shilloh's past, since Shilloh won't tell anyone herself. She's a pain like that.**


	13. Filler

It was beautiful out- not that anyone would be able to recognize it over the sound of Hodgins complaining. Shilloh had insisted on walking to the diner, since it was so close to the Jeffersonian, and no one had agreed to go with her; which was fine by her, she knew how to enjoy herself alone. The problem had arisen when she'd taken a wrong turn once out the doors.

And then it was decided that Hodgins would walk with her, since she obviously couldn't be trusted to make it to the diner herself.

"Jack, shut up and enjoy the outdoors," she said over the sound of his voice, and then averted her attention over to Zach. "So I know why he came- Angela was giving him the death glare. Why'd you come?"

"Hodgins is my ride," he said simply, and then was quiet as he continued to walk next to her.

'Ok. So, I don't mean to pry- well, yes, I do. What I mean is, don't feel obligated to answer if you don't want to- or, well, something. Right, rambling, anyway, back to the original point. Intentional prying, he's your ride because... why, exactly?" Shilloh moved her hands about, intentionally arching her left arm a bit more than she needed to so she could _accidentally _hit Hodgins who was still grumbling.

"I live above his garage, it's more efficient that we car pool," Zach said, watching as she hit Hodgins again for calling her out on her not-so-accidental hitting.

"Yeah, that, and he doesn't drive," Hodgins said, eager to get Shilloh's attention off of him. It seemed to work, because she finally stopped flapping at him with her hands.

"Really? Can't afford a car? Don't like the traffic?" She asked, and then scrunched her face, "hold up, you live above his _garage_? That doesn't sound very well insulated, don't you get cold?" Her nose still scrunched, she looked between Hodgins and Zach. "And you just let him freeze, then, do you? Some friend you are," she swatted Hodgins on his arm again lightly, and he made a face at her that she didn't see- her attention was already back on Zach.

"It is very well insulated. Hodgins prefers that I say I am renting the room above his garage because it otherwise gives off the wrong impression. It is quite spacious, with a kitchen and everything," Zach said, elaborating because it was obvious that Shilloh still wasn't convinced that she much liked this whole garage set-up.

Her eyes narrowed at him, and he felt very much like he was being scrutinized. Finally, she nodded over at him, and said, "well that's good, then. Now, why is it that you don't drive, aside from it being more efficient?"

"I am working towards a doctorate in applied engineering," he said, and when she stared at him blankly, he elaborated, "I do not much care for the structural engineering of cars," Shilloh then looked at him again in that scrutinizing manner. It made him nervous, as if he had somehow said something potentially wrong, and she was deciding if he needed to be laughed at.

"You know, I only ever worry about other drivers, I don't think I've ever once given thought to the actual make-up of my car. Please don't tell me anything about it, I rather enjoy driving and I don't want it spoiled," she nodded at him again, and he realized that she wasn't judging _him_ when he said something, but more where exactly she should place the words he said.

It made him feel just a bit more secure around her, knowing that she was listening to what he said and categorizing it, just as he did with her smiles.

"So, Hodgins," Shilloh began, sliding her arms behind her back and tilting her head up to look at him, "what sort of a man drives two different cars- I've seen you do it, and they both look positively _shiny_ -yes, that was an intentional Firefly reference, drop it. And what sort of a man has, for all intents and purposes, an _apartment_ above his garage," she narrowed her eyes at Hodgins, but the smile on her face made it apparent that she thought his squirming was funny.

When he snapped a rubber band on his wrist twice and looked thoroughly uncomfortable, though, she stopped smiling.

"Hey, Jack, I was only joking. I've got a couple of rich friends, it's no big deal- so you've got a few extra cars and enough space to let a friend move in; so what? I'm really sorry if my joking upset you, though, it wasn't intentional at all," Shilloh placed her hand on his elbow, and looked at him, trying to determine what was upsetting him.

He sighed for a moment, then looked over her head at Zach who wasn't able to offer any support- he was afraid anything he would say would just further his friend's distress.

Luckily for both boys, Shilloh was a fast thinker, "Oh, I see. Jack, don't worry about it, I get it. You want your privacy, fine; I won't tell anyone you've got some extra pocket money, ok? Although, really, if you don't want people to know, you should probably not take that beautiful thunderbird in anymore," she smiled up at him, satisfied that the situation had resolved itself. "Now, I'm hungry, and the diner isn't getting any closer with us sitting here moping, come on, guys."

"I only took the thunderbird in once! Last week! You barely knew me," Hodgins called after her, as she had already made a sizable gap between them.

"It's a lovely car- a person takes a car like that to work, you take notice," she called back, waiting for them to catch up to her. "Look! The diner! Finally!" And just like that, she was making to get a head start on them again.

"I suppose we will be stuck with the most undesirable seating, as we will be arriving last," Zach said as he watched her open the door with a bit more force than entirely necessary.

"Most definitely," Hodgins agreed when they finally reached the door themselves.

**Ok, guys, here's the run down:**

**My laptop's going through some problems, so the chapters I have written down aren't going to be up until I get it fixed (which will be between the 25th and the end of the month). Because I love you all so much I found a way write a filler chapter between the last one and the one I've got written on my laptop.**

**Also, since I've been without my laptop, I've been doing future one-shots for this story like crazy, and I've realized that if I do every single episode it is going to be crazy-slow. I don't know what possessed me to think I could, or even should, do all the episodes, but there you have it.**

**Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, I'm cutting stuff out. If you've got any favs. you absolutely have to have (outside of the obvious- Man in the Fallout Shelter, The Man on Death Row) then let me know. Otherwise, forever hold your peace.**

**Once again, sorry this bit is so crazy short, I'll make it up to you once I get my laptop up and running by posting the two chapters I've got on there at the same time (crazy!).**


	14. Diner Pt 1

**Here's the deal: anyone who's read my profile knows that after watching (most of) Season Three, I became a bit depressed from the Bones fanon, and had to abandon this story because I couldn't reconcile where canon went with how this story was going.**

**I finally decided to just say 'screw it' and pick it up again, ignoring Season Three. We'll see what happens when I get there, I guess. Anyway, this chapter's really, really short, because I just wanted to post something so everyone knows that I'm updating again.**

**A NOTE FOR EVERYONE THAT REVIEWED/ALERTED/FAVORITED WHILE I WAS ON HIATUS/MOPING: **

**Thank you so much, your "support" really kicked my butt into gear. Seriously, every time I got a note I felt like a traitor, and finally it got to be too much and I realized just what an idiot I was being. So thanks for pushing me into action, guys.**

"It's very red, isn't it?" Shilloh said, looking behind her to Zach, who was the first to catch up to her. She smiled up at him, reaching back to grab his hand and pulling her forward into the room with her, searching out the table their friends were seated at.

"Where are they? I mean, it shouldn't be this hard to find them, it's a very open layout here," Shilloh complained, standing on the balls of her feet to try and see towards the back of the room.

Zach was looking at their hands, not entirely certain as to why she had felt the need to grab onto him- he was clearly following her, and the only other times she had done so was when she wanted him to go somewhere that he really didn't want to go. He was going to ask her about it when she tugged on his hand again, pulling him towards the other end of the restaurant.

"There they are! Come on Zach," and just as fast as she grabbed his hand she let it go, rushing towards the booth and scooting herself in next to Angela.

Hodgins was pushing him towards the booth, but he was suddenly feeling a little bit panicky about the situation. Shilloh had grabbed his hand, and he knew that it wasn't an implication of anything romantic, but that somehow made it more confusing.

She had spent her lunches with them, spent her time clarifying things to him without getting upset or making comments about how dumb he was for such a smart person (it was a regular statement that still didn't make sense to him). She had asked for his phone number, and smiled at his jokes, and now she was actively touching him. This was not a facet of human interaction that he was familiar with, and it seemed that she was going to continue pushing him into ever more unfamiliar waters.

How was he supposed to act around her now that she had initiated a new step in their relationship? He would have to talk to Angela later.

Hodgins had taken Zach's rare moment of distraction to steal the better of the two remaining spots, forcing him to sit on the very outer edge of the booth and shift awkwardly so as not to hit his legs against anyone else's.

"Sorry we're a bit late you guys, has everyone already ordered?" Shilloh asked, looking around for menus and wondering what she wanted. It didn't really matter, she decided, just so long as it was cheap.

"No, Bones wouldn't let us eat without you, she said it would be rude," Booth grumbled from the middle of the booth, having been coerced into joining the group instead of taking up his usual residence on one of the bar stools.

"Booth, it's culturally unacceptable to begin a meal when all the participants have not arrived," Brennan admonished lightly, before turning her attention to Shilloh. "Hodgins tells me you're a graphics intern? How did you get your position with the Jeffersonian?" She asked, seemingly interested in how Shilloh had come to travel across the country for her current internship.

"I have no idea, actually. I sent in a letter expressing my interest, but I didn't think I would even be taken as a serious consideration, let alone actually _picked_ from all of the applicants. It was a huge surprise, and I spent quite a bit of time trying to juggle things around to make it possible for me to come down here," Shilloh answered, trying not to feel embarrassed over how poor a student her statement made her look.

"You didn't think you'd be accepted? Then why did you apply?" Brennan asked, to which she got several disapproving looks and one whispered, 'that's not an appropriate question,' from Angela. "Why not? Zach applied for his internship position knowing that he had the qualities required for the position, even if he was worried that there would be others more qualified than him, he still felt he would stand a reasonable chance at getting it. It sounds, however, that you applied thinking that you didn't posses the qualities required. So I'm curious as to why you applied. How is that an inappropriate question Angela?"

Shilloh laughed, and it was the second time that Hodgins was surprised at her reaction to a question that otherwise would have made someone feel out of place.

"I applied because DC was the farthest I could get from my house and still have a legitimate reason for doing so. There were several places closer to home that I felt much more comfortable with, but, they were closer to home," she shrugged her shoulders and reached for Angela's water, taking a sip of it and placing the cup down in front of her, to which Angela scoffed slightly and replaced the water back in front of herself.

**OKAY YOU GUYS I SWEAR I'LL ADD MORE LATER TONIGHT. I JUST WANTED TO ADD THIS SO YOU LOVELY PEOPLE KNOW THAT I AM UPDATING AGAIN. **

**ONCE AGAIN, I'M SO, SO SORRY FOR PRACTICALLY ABANDONING THIS STORY (YOU) FOR SUCH A LONG TIME**


	15. Diner Pt 2

**So don't hate me or anything, but I felt it was time to introduce some of Shilloh's "issues." Trust me when I say this- she has some real self-esteem issues which are vaguely hinted at in previous chapters, but up until now they've been **_**cute**_**. None of her "issues" are random, and all of them stem from a couple of things, all of which will be addressed much later- which is the reason I introduced Maria earlier in the story. Because Shilloh won't **_**ever**_** talk about them. It's also the reason I don't want her to develop a romance with Zach so fast; I think that they both have some real emotional problems that they both need to work through before their friendship could ever turn into anything more. There, now that that's done, hopefully her sudden turn into "OMG ANGST" or whatever won't blind-side you.**

"So your reason for applying was to get away from your house?" Brennan asked, feeling the need to clarify in case she'd missed something.

"Yeah; there were a couple of places in Oregon that I applied to, one I thought I would get, but, well, when Cherryl Renniker called me up personally to tell me that she'd accepted me as her intern at the Jeffersonian. Well, there was no way I was going to wait around hmming and hawwing over it, just to see if the place in Oregon would accept me- I mean, I'd have to be crazy not to accept a position with the _Jeffersonian," _

Shilloh said, stripping her soft gray hoodie off and placing her forearms on the table in front of her.

"The Jeffersonian isn't known for it's graphic designers, what made you choose a science institute over someplace else? You said there was another one in Oregon that would accept you, was that not far enough from home?" Brennan leaned forward as well, squishing both Booth and Angela as she did so.

"No, no, Oregon was most definitely far enough away. But, I mean, it's the _Jeffersonian_, not only would that look good on a resume despite it being a science institute- it's a science institute; and I love science. I'm complete rubbish at it, but it's fascinating, so I thought- _hey, not only do I get out of the house, not only will it look good, but I'll also get to surround myself with all sorts of really cool things. _Not that I've actually had the time to look around, yet, which is a bit depressing actually," Shilloh sighed, and was about to say something else when a man with black hair came up to their booth. "Oh, hello, can I have a-" she trailed off as he set a cup of water in front of her, Zach, and Hodgins, and then stared at her for a moment before nodding and walking back towards the kitchen.

Looking around the table with raised eyebrows, she wasn't entirely certain what to say about what had just happened. It wasn't every day that you were stared down by your waiter.

"That's Sid-" Booth began.

"He has a knack for knowing what you want without having to ask you," Brennan finished, liking that she was holding such a successful conversation with someone she didn't really know, and not wanting it to end just yet.

"That, is _so_ cool," Shilloh said, making herself appear at least three years younger than she actually was as she tapped her hands excitedly on the table to a rhythm only she knew and smiled towards the front of the restaurant. "So I'm assuming that's why there's a lack of menus," she said after a brief silence.

"Yes," came Zach's simple answer, and she felt foolish for having said anything at all, with the way he was looking at her- as if she should have known from the beginning why there were no menus, and she should have had no reason to clarify. She looked at him for a while, trying to decide what to say, and opened her mouth slightly; hoping that at the very least word-vomit would suffice, and it would successfully distract from how awkward she suddenly felt in his presence, but still nothing came out.

He was still _looking_ at her as if he was trying to figure her out, and she felt so incredibly stupid suddenly, perched at the end of a booth that was filled with so many smart people. Not just smart, but certifiably genius- hell, most of them had a Doctorate in something, and Zach was working towards _two_. What was she doing here, with these people? She didn't fit with them, and she should maybe just find someone in her actual office to socialize with; someone who was more her speed. Someone who wouldn't look at her as if she was a moron every time she opened her mouth, and rightfully so; half the time she didn't know what Zach or Hodgins were talking about, and she knew they put on their kiddy gloves for her during their lunches. Or at least Hodgins did.

She must be so annoying to them, she thought, looking down at her hands on the table.

"So we're still heading out shopping tomorrow at ten, right?" Angela asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Oh, yeah," Shilloh answered, slightly distracted. She looked over at Angela, beautiful, smart, wonderful Angela, and felt a little dead inside. She didn't deserve her friendship, didn't deserve for Angela to be so nice to such a dunce, such a complete failure. Here she was, half-way across the country because she couldn't deal with her problems and so she just ran away; here she was, half-way across the country doing an internship for such a trivial career compared to Angela's; and here she was, half-way across the country, unable to properly take care of herself despite her best effort. Her parents had been right all along, really, even if they'd never come right out and said it: her best effort just wasn't good enough.

She suddenly didn't feel comfortable sitting around people who were so much _better_ than her, people who's best effort caught killers and re-named the long dead. These were people who were doing things with their lives, and she didn't think she could relate to them; but, she'd already agreed to go shopping with Angela, so she couldn't back out now.

With a heavy sigh, she looked up at Zach who had begun to unravel his utensils from their napkin, and then over to Angela who seemed to be worried about something.

"How do you like your co-workers," Brennan cut through the tense silence, unknowingly breaking through Shilloh's barrier and causing her to smile over at the older woman. Co-workers, this was a territory that Shilloh felt comfortable with; it was certainly something that no one here could judge her on.

"Most of them seem alright, thought not very interesting, to be honest. There's constant squabbling going on between two of the women, who seem to want to try and make me the mediator; and there's a man there, Bob, who smells up the whole office with his lunches. He's always bringing in things like fish or garlic-soaked noodles; it's actually kind of nauseating," she laughed, trying to shake off how uncomfortable she still felt, especially with the full attention of Dr. Brennan focused solely on her.

"That is extremely inconsiderate of him, has anyone asked him to not bring in such lunches?" Zach asked as Sid came back with their food.

"He's been employed with the Jeffersonian longer than everyone else, so they're all kind of scared to upset him," Shiloh replied, looking down at the wonton soup in front of her. "Hey! This is perfect! Thank you Sid!" She smiled up at him, to which he smiled back at her and returned to the kitchen to get the rest of the booth's food. "What did you get Zach?" She was curious, since she'd only ever seen him eat macaroni and cheese.

"Rice stir-fry," he replied, scooping out a bell pepper with his chopsticks, ignoring the fork and spoon that he'd previously unrolled from his napkin.

She was mildly amused, for no reason in particular, and had to resist the urge to watch him eating something so un-Zach-like.

Looking down at her own still-rolled-up utensils, she cringed inwardly at the thought of having to undo it; she'd been a waitress for a short time, and it was such a hassle to put those things together. She looked at her wonton soup, hoping that it had come with a spoon of its own, but no such luck.

With a heavy sigh, she picked up her napkin roll, and looked back across the table at Zach as he scooped rice up with his chopsticks. Oh, she was an idiot, she thought, rolling her eyes to herself as she placed her napkin back down and leaned across the table to snag Zach's spoon.

"What are you doing?" He asked, chopsticks half-way to his mouth.

"You weren't going to use it, were you?" She asked, fiddling with the spoon, suddenly nervous. "I just didn't want to waste a perfectly good fork when your cutlery was already unrolled," she said, not looking at him and reaching back across the table to place his spoon back, "sorry, I should have asked first."

"You can have the spoon," he shrugged, nudging it towards her hand that still hadn't withdrawn to her side of the table, "I was just wondering what you were doing," and he was _looking_ at her again, like he was trying to figure her out.

She'd clearly made a fool of herself around these people enough for a lifetime, as soon as she was done shopping with Angela she was just going to leave them alone; let them finally be rid of her.

She held the spoon in her hand as if it were some sort of spear, before plopping it into her soup, "erm, thanks, Zach."

The others continued to talk throughout dinner, discussing previous vacations they'd had and moving on to the most bizarre cases they'd had; neither of which Shilloh could really participate in, and even if she _could_ she didn't really feel up to it.

Not that they didn't try to drag her into conversation though, Angela being the most determined, asking her how she'd liked Philadelphia, or Salt Lake, or Florida, or any number of places- none of which really could be considered _vacations_ except for Florida; and even then it had been a pity vacation because of her cancer.

Man, she was depressing tonight.

Deciding it was for the best if she headed home soon, she made to pay for her bill, "hey guys, I think I should head home; it was kind of a busy day for me and I don't want to be tired tomorrow," she said, smiling at Angela as she scooted out of the booth.

"Well hold on, I'll drive you home," Angela announced, having finished her dinner before anyone else.

"What's wrong, Shilloh?" Angela said as soon as they entered her car. Shilloh looked at her with her eyebrows scrunched together, and her lips pursed just slightly in a very clear look of _what are you talking about?_ "You were abnormally quiet during dinner, and don't think I didn't notice the way you couldn't look at Zach throughout the entire meal. What did he do?" She jumped directly to the assumption that it was all Zach's fault, and Shilloh couldn't help but twitch her lips in a vain attempt to stop herself from laughing.

"He didn't do anything, honest, Angela; and there's not really anything wrong, just having a bit of a tough time adjusting to life here, that's all," she said, glossing over the fact that it was life _with such wonderful people_ that she wasn't used to.

Angela didn't seem to fully believe her, but let it slide when it became apparent by Shilloh's carefully composed look that she wasn't going to say anything more on the subject.

"Alright, well, what sorts of clothes do you think you'll be needing? If you can tell me now, it'll help me narrow down where we go tomorrow," she said, switching on the radio and surfing through the channels until she found one she agreed with.

"I don't know, I've never really been good with fashion, so I suppose it's a good thing you're coming with me tomorrow. I just mostly want things that'll look good with high heels, and since I've never owned any I don't really... know..." she trailed off at the look Angela was giving her, "what?"

"You've never owned high heels? No, you know what, forget that part- you don't know what _goes_ with high heels? Oh, sweetie, I have so much to teach you," she said, pulling into a left hand turn lane.

"Um, okay, I suppose I will be a mostly-willing student tomorrow. I'll also need some semi-professional attire, and several items that will work for both fall and winter. I also need a good winter coat," Shilloh said, tapping her fingers along the window while she waited impatiently for the light to turn green- she wanted to be home and talking to Maria, not sitting in car and having a conversation with someone as beautiful as Angela. It made her feel like she was a leech, just hanging on the coat-tails of glory.

"Oh no, if you don't know what goes with heels, you'll be a student for longer than just tomorrow," Angela said with confidence, finally turning left and into Shilloh's apartment complex. "I know I've said it like, five times already, but don't forget that I'll pick you up tomorrow at ten," and with one final wave Angela pulled away and took all of her comforting words with her.

So now Shilloh was left with the empty feeling of wondering just why any of them had ever even decided to talk to her; maybe they saw her as some sort of adorable pet?

She was already calling Maria on her cell as she walked into her apartment, collapsing onto her couch wearily and trying very, very hard not to cry.

"Shilloh! It's you!" Maria said jubilantly, sounding so happy to hear from her friend that it made Shilloh feel better.

"Hey Mar-bear," she said, wondering how to go about telling her friend what was wrong.

"Oh no, Shilloh, what did DC do? Was it Cherryl? Or that bug guy, what's-his-name?" Maria asked, worry clouding her voice, and it sounded like she was shifting things around before she sat down in what Shilloh knew to be her friend's favorite chair.

"They're-" Shilloh had to swallow a lump in her throat, and could feel the tears already stinging her eyes, "they're all too good for me, Maria," she whispered, knowing even as she said it that her friend would object. "They're all so smart. I mean, they're out there, and doing things- they catch killers, Maria. _They're good enough, Maria_. And I don't know why they want me around, I don't understand anything they say, and I've, well, you know what I'm doing. You know why I'm here," the tears were clouding her vision, and she felt so angry with herself. She'd known, for a long time now, that there were people out there better than her- Maria was one of them, and the only reason they had stayed friends for so long was because Shilloh couldn't get rid of her no matter how hard she tried- but _knowing _that, and actually befriending people like that. Well, it stung.

"Shilloh Augustine Phillips. Don't you dare- don't you _ever_- I don't," Maria took a deep breath before continuing, "how can you say that to me? I am _so proud of you_, and you telling me that you're _nothing_, that hurts me more than anything you could ever say to me. So what if they're smart? So what if they went out there and took a chance with their lives and it worked out? Because you know what? So are you, you're in DC right now, _doing what you want_, being not just good enough, but _great enough_. And if I find out that you've started distancing yourself from them, so help me, I will come down there and kick your ass. Do you hear me?" Maria was almost yelling into the phone, and Shilloh was struck by just how upset her friend was.

She nodded mutely into the phone, forgetting that Maria couldn't see it, and then raggedly whispered, "yeah, thanks, Maria."

"You _are_ good enough. Love you," and with that Maria hung up.

Shilloh sat on her couch for a little bit longer, looking down at her phone. Maria was right, she was taking a chance, she was doing what she wanted- so what if it wasn't catching killers or sewing lives back together. She was an _artist_ and that was still something to be proud of.

And she was all on her own in DC. She smiled wickedly to herself while she set her alarm for nine am. _Take that_ she thought to her parents, before getting ready for bed.

**We're getting close to the beginnings of Season One, and as such I figured I'd post the episodes that I'm going to write, the ones that are italicized and underlined are the ones that I ****will most definitely do****, everything else is a little suspect. **

**The reason I'm posting this, is because if there's not one on the list, and you **_**absolutely have to have it**_** in the story, just shoot me a note/put it in a review, and I'll most likely do it. It's a guarantee I'll do it if two or more people want the same episode in this story.**

_**The Man in the Fallout Shelter**_

_**A Boy in a Bush**_

_**The Man in the Wall**_

_**The Man on Death Row**_

**The Woman in the Car**

**The Superhero in the Alley**

**Two Bodies in the Lab**

**The Skull in the Desert***

_**The Woman in Limbo**_

_**The Man in the Bear**_** was an episode that happened before this story took place, so it's one that I cannot do, sorry if anyone's upset by this.**

***This one, since it has very little of anyone but Bones and Angela in it, will actually have to be creatively done on my part- sorry if anyone gets upset with me kind of bastardizing it. I'm really only including it because I feel it's important to show how much Shilloh has (or in the case of this note I should use future tense, shouldn't I, so will) grown/grow to love her makeshift family.**

**And, because I love everything right now, I guess I'll post what is the tentative schedule for Season Two, bear in mind there's very little that I KNOW I will actually be writing about for that season, since I'm not entirely 100% certain how this one will leave off with the characters and Shilloh (I mean, I **_**know**_**, but I also don't. That doesn't make sense, but whatever.)**

**Season Two**

**The Titan on the Track**

_**The Blond in the Game**_

**The Truth in the Lye**

**The Girl with the Curl**

_**Aliens in a Spaceship**_

**The Headless Witch in the Woods**

_**Judas on a Pole**_

_**The Man in the Cell**_

**The Boneless Bride in the River**

**The Priest in the Churchyard**

_**Stargazer in a Puddle**_

**As far as I'm concerned, the only episode in Season Three that happened was the first one. So until I get there, writing wise, we will be ignoring it entirely. You can request episodes from Season Two as well, but keep in mind that I really, honestly, have no idea what I will need to include outside of the ones underlined, so everything is up for speculation until I've re-watched that season and actually get there writing-wise.**

**I suppose, if you must, you can request Season Three episodes, too :(. I was planning on ending this fanfiction after Season Three, but now I must fix things around to figure out where I'm going with this.**

**Sorry for the obnoxiously-long author's note, guys (if anyone's even read this far I will be impressed), and they won't be this long in the future (they probably won't even exist in the future).**


	16. Shopping Pt 1

Shilloh was surprised to see Zach standing outside her apartment at nine forty-five am, looking for all the world as if he were about to take a make-or-break-your-futre test, and he was trying to hide how terrified he was.

She was so amused by the image he made that she wasn't able to decide exactly what she wanted to ask him- why he was outside her apartment, why he looked so nervous, why his hair looked combed.

"I told Angela we were early, that you were expecting her to be here at ten and as such you would be upset if she sent me to get you earlier. I think she was more concerned with getting me out of the car so she could have a private conversation with whoever called her, though; and so I apologize if us being early has caused you to feel rushed," Zach said at fast pace, subtly shifting his weight to rest on his right leg.

So he was upset because he thought he'd infringed upon some sort of social tableau and she'd be upset with him for it. Because he was fifteen minutes early.

Shaking her head at him, she opened her door wide enough to let him in and said, "Don't worry about it Zach, I kind of figured Angela would be too excited to stick to an actual schedule. And, well, it's _Angela_, I haven't known her very long but she doesn't strike me as the type that watches the clock." She smiled up at him, and when it became apparent that he wasn't going to come in, she said, "well, come on in Zach, I still have to finish drying my hair, and there's no point in you waiting for me outside."

Zach shuffled past her and went to sit on the couch, and she was immensely glad that she had cleaned her apartment that morning so there was no evidence of her sleeping in her living room.

She watched him for a second, wondering what she should do; she'd never been a good hostess- there'd never really been a need for her to be- and she didn't know if this scenario really counted as being a hostess, anyway.

"Would you like something to drink, Zach?" She asked, dragging his attention away from her growing wall of sketches.

"No, thank you," and then he shifted to get more comfortable on her ugly red couch, and returned his attention to the wall in front of him.

Ok, so clearly she would never throw spectacular dinner parties, and she was wasting time worrying over this when she still had to finish getting ready.

She was almost done drying her hair when she remembered that she was supposed to be surprised by Zach being there, and felt a bit ridiculous over how long it had taken her to realize that he didn't belong. Granted, she'd almost been able to forget he was even _there_ he was so quiet.

"Hey Zach, why are you coming with us?" She asked as she changed shirts, hoping he could hear her through the closed door of the bathroom.

"I need new pants and Hodgins refused to drive me, Angela offered to take me yesterday but failed to mention that I would be the- third wheel?- in your pre-made plans," she could hear the question in his voice, the almost-hope that he had used a saying correctly, and tried not to laugh, knowing it would make him think she was laughing at him in an entirely wrong way.

She decided not to tell him he'd used it correctly, figuring that if it wasn't mentioned then he would feel as if she hadn't even noticed that he was worried he would have gotten it wrong.

"I'm sorry you have to tag along with two women who are doing some pretty extensive clothes shopping; I really don't think you'll be having much fun today," she looked towards him as she entered her living room, her light purple blouse on today. It was going to be nice to have other clothing options.

"Did you draw all of these?" He asked, disregarding her previous statement.

She was surprised by the intense amount of focus he was studying her sketches with; it looked similar to how he had when reconstructing Mary's skull, and it made her feel very self-conscious.

"Yeah. As you can see, there's not much else to do in my apartment yet, so I've got to entertain myself somehow," she replied, stepping up next to him and looking at her sketches as well.

They really weren't anything spectacular, just quick doodles of people from her work- a caricature of Bob microwaving a whole fish, Cherryl holding a mouse up to her face questioningly. There was a disturbingly vast amount of sketches of Maria in different styles, most unfinished but still somehow showing a whole aspect of Maria's personality.

The ones that had seemed to catch Zach's attention though were the ones of the Forensic Anthropology workers.

"Is that how you really see Hodgins?" He asked, pointing to a drawing of the curly-haired entomologist that showed him wrestling with a life-sized pincer bug of some kind.

"Kind of, yeah," she shrugged her shoulders, watching as he grabbed for the sketch of him.

"Angela was correct in telling me to comb my hair, if this is how messy it normally looks."

Shilloh couldn't help it this time, and her laughter was loud, she was also afraid that it bordered on obnoxious, but she couldn't stop despite her best efforts. It was getting hard for her to breathe she was laughing so hard, and she was worried that she'd get a stitch in her side soon.

Poor Zach was staring at her, sketch in hand, completely lost as to what was so funny, but a small smile on his face none-the-less.

"I'm sorry Zach, really," she gasped, leaning against the wall for support, "your hair's fine, don't listen to Angela. My sketches take out some of the most distinguishing features of a person and enhance them; very much like a caricature but on a much smaller scale. Did she really make you comb your hair?" She asked, finally calm enough to push herself away from the wall and look towards Zach without wanting to laugh again.

Zach simply nodded, still smiling lightly, and looked back down at the sketch in his hands, "this is quite good- they all are," he looked back up at her and made to put the drawing back on the wall.

"Keep it- it's of you, might as well have it, right? Anyway, I'm ready to go finally, best not let Angela think she can just kick you out of the car because she wants to have a private chat, yeah? Let's go bother her some," Shilloh said, picking up her bag and keys as she walked out the front door, pausing to wait for Zach to leave before her.

"Bother her?" Zach asked.

"Yes. She just shooed you out of the car, to take a cell phone call? She owes me some answers."

"I believe the reason she wanted me to leave is because the phone call was private, why would she feel, now that it is over, that she can talk about it?"

"Oh Zach, I have so much to teach you," Shilloh smiled up at him, then waved at Angela as they reached the car.


	17. Shopping Pt 2

"Hey Ange, I hear you're kicking innocent people out of your car now," Shilloh greeted, scooting herself into the front seat while Zach resigned himself to the back.

"I had a call from Brennan; I was trying to convince her to come with us," she replied, pulling out of the apartment complex while surfing through radio stations.

"Is she going to come? That would be so much fun! It'd be a girls' day!" Shilloh smiled hopefully, rolling down her window absentmindedly.

"I feel, as a male who would be part of this group, that I should be offended at the thought that I would be included in a girls' day," Zach directed towards them, not looking up from one of his text books.

"No, she's not coming," Angela said, ignoring Zach entirely and not giving up anymore details as to why her friend had called in the first place.

The car was quiet for several minutes, broken up only by the sound of the radio and Shilloh humming along quietly while waving her hand out the window to the beat of the current song.

Zach was eyeing her curiously over the top of his text book; he couldn't place her behaviors and it bothered him. She was at such an odds with herself that it was making cataloging her much harder than he had originally anticipated.

She was often juvenile in her actions; skipping from place to place, her over-zealous glee over the smallest of things, even what she was doing now- playing with the wind- complemented the appearance of youth that she gave off.

Yet there were times that he had observed her to be, somehow, older; and they always made him feel uncomfortable somehow. The way she had looked while asleep in the lab was one such instance. He had kept thinking over what it was about her appearance that had bothered him, and had come to the conclusion that she looked older when awake than asleep, which was supposedly a common occurrence, and yet it still bothered him.

And then there were certain smiles she had, the ones he wasn't able to label like all the others- the ones where she was joking with him or happy with something he had said, or the one where she was surprised which, admittedly he had only seen once and would therefore have to have more empirical data on in order to conclude that it really _was_ surprise- none of those were like the ones she got when she talked about her home.

Like the one she had right now, for that matter. Feeling a little uncomfortable, Zach opened his mouth to ask her something- he wasn't certain yet, but hopefully whatever he came up with would make her smile for real- when she turned in her seat to look at him, her eyes scrunched in thought and her lips pursed to the side.

"So this girl you're trying to impress, you think new pants alone will work?"

He was so taken aback by her comment that he didn't bother denying that he was, in fact, trying to impress someone.

"I've been told that appearance is important when trying to pursue a relationship with someone beyond merely friendship."

"Wait, Zach, who're you wanting to go out with? And how did you know based off the fact that he wanted new pants?" Angela asked, turning the volume on the radio down.

"He doesn't need new pants, Angela. None of his other pairs are in need of replacement, so I thought _why would a guy willingly go clothes shopping? _And the only logical conclusion is that he's trying to impress someone. He's not done with his dissertation yet, there's not a trial that he has to attend, he's not going home, so, it must be a girl," Shilloh was now back to waving her hand in the air outside her window, "it's a good thing Hodgins didn't take you, Zach, and that you're going with us instead." Angela nodded her head at this, and Zach was immediately confused: why did it matter who took him to buy new pants?

"I don't understand, why does that matter?"

"No guy will ever tell another guy that a pair of pants give him the right level of hotness," Shilloh said, turning in her seat to wink at him, "which is why you need to go shopping with girls. We'll get you the right clothes to impress the girl properly."

"So, who is this mystery girl?" Angela asked, turning into the mall parking lot, "I figured we'd start here and get the main clothing items first," she said to Shilloh while parking.

"Naomi," Zach said, unbuckling his seatbelt.

"From paleontology? Don't tell Jack, he's got some sort of vendetta against them," Shilloh told him while grabbing her bag and re-tying her shoelaces. "Alright, we'll get you some pants that will make you look appropriately impressive, but I think you should get shirts, too," she announced, eyeing him with a scrutinizing look that made him feel a little nervous.

**Sorry it's so short, but I've got a ton of homework still due and work; I just wanted to get something out (you know, because I just started updating again, and so our reader-author relationship is still so fragile. I don't want you losing faith in me!).**


	18. Shopping Pt 3

**I dub this: The Chapter That Would Not Be Written No Matter How Much I Begged It. Please enjoy my pain.**

Shopping with Angela was like training for the Olympics, and Shilloh was fairly certain that, by the end of the day, she'd be able to win the gold.

It was exhausting, being pulled from one store to the other, being essentially forced into clothing items she had absolutely _no_ intention of ever wearing because Angela thought they would look cute. Or sexy. Or, once, geek-chic, which had confused Shilloh to no end; how could geek ever be chic? Apparently, though, it could, and Angela proclaimed that the outfit would only be enhanced by high-heels; maybe even pushing it into the category of sexy-geek. How there could be so many styles revolving around _geek_, she did not know; after all, she had assumed that there was just the one, and that she proudly sported it by wearing her Jayne Cobb hat that her friend had knitted her, or by wearing her twenty-sided die necklace on days she needed a little bit of extra luck.

These things, according to Angela, were _guy_-geek, and the fact that Shilloh found nothing wrong with wearing these types of items with her every day outfits instead of as enhancements to a type of style, was a clear indicator that Angela was doing some sort of community service and should be applauded for the amount of work she was going to have to put in to updating Shilloh's wardrobe.

"It doesn't bother you?" Zach asked, standing next to her while she pushed shirts around listlessly on a rack, waiting patiently for Angela to return from the other side of the store.

"Bother me?" Shilloh looked up at him questioningly, eyebrows furrowed slightly, "I think you need to clarify for me, I'm not so good at determining what other people mean when they only give me partial details," she returned to pushing the shirts around; she had given up on choosing her own clothing two stores ago, and now only gave off the appearance of actively searching out clothes to keep Angela happy.

"That Angela has told you your clothing choices are not acceptable? I have been told by Hodgins that women often feel insulted when their clothing is not deemed fashionable, though I do not understand why," he was looking through the shirts now, too, though Shilloh didn't really know why, since they were all women's. She supposed it was because he had finally hit his boredom tolerance.

"No, it doesn't bother me; I'm lucky to have her telling me how to dress more- erm- fashionably," Shilloh shrugged, holding up a layered tank top with blue accents, eyeing it critically before placing it back on the rack, "outside of work I don't care how I look, not really, but now that I'm in a professional setting, my appearance is going to reflect how seriously I take myself and thus my work, so I need to look good. I don't know how to do that, and Angela doesn't care how I dress, she's just giving me pointers on how to accentuate my inherent 'style' and make it more professional. Not that I knew I had a style, which is another reason I'm really glad I have Angela here telling me what looks good and what doesn't." She was now looking at a similarly layered shirt, this one with blue stripes on the top layer, a solid blue on the middle, and white along the bottom.

She played with the thin blue shoulder straps, wondering if the slight ruffling of each layer would look good on her, or 'hide her figure' as Angela had put it. Her friend had been giving her tips on the way certain cuts of clothing could make her look thinner, or curvier, or hide her muffin top, or really just about anything she wanted; Shilloh wasn't really getting it, though. With a sigh, she replaced the top on the rack, wishing Angela would get back soon so she'd know what to try on without having to guess.

"You should try it," Zach said, holding the top out to her, a slightly awkward tilt to his head that belied how uncomfortable he was with even just implying that he thought it would look good on her; something Shilloh had been laughing at all day. Angela kept forcing him to be a participant in the 'fashion shows' that Shilloh would put on, trying to determine what clothes looked best, and he kept awkwardly trying to deflect the 'doesn't that look good on her?' question. He was smart enough to know that, with Angela, there was no way for him to win, no matter how he answered.

But Angela wasn't here right now, and he thought that maybe it would be alright with Shilloh if he told her, from a guy's perspective, that the top she had clearly wanted, would look good on her. After all, she was going to help him choose clothing that looked good, and it seemed right to try and return the favor.

"Thanks, Zach, I think I will; I'll be right back," she smiled at him as she wound her hands around the hanger, then twirled off to the changing rooms. Twirled wasn't really a word usually used to describe the way someone moved, but he felt confident that it accurately described the way she seemed to walk- almost as if she was always surprised to end up at her destination. If he was one for metaphor, which he was not, he would say that, sometimes, she reminded him of a flock of birds that was frightened into flight: scattering about randomly and yet somehow always ending up gracefully flying together, turning in synch and stretching up like ink into the sky. But he wasn't one for metaphor, and so that wasn't something Zach thought; it was, however, something that itched at the back of his mind irrationally, until he got bored of standing in front of a rack of women's clothing and moved to the perfume counter; where he thought he might be able to waste time by trying to label the different chemicals used in them through smell alone.

Maybe it would even help him be King of the Lab on Monday, though he sincerely doubted it.

Shilloh returned three minutes later, smiling brightly up at him, the shirt still in hand, "I like it," she said simply, shuffling up next to him. "You know, I wanted to buy some perfume today; I was hoping it would maybe cancel out the smell of Bob's lunches," she sighed as she looked in her wallet, then glanced at the prices of the perfume bottles, "but, I think it can wait another day."

"There you two are!" Angela said from the end of the isle, three bags dangling from her left arm, "I thought I'd left you in a different store or something."

"Nope, still here," Shilloh laughed, then glanced over at Zach, "Ange, I think I've got everything I need, minus the coat, so I think it's time we focus our attention on Mr. Addy here," Shilloh's smile grew in size as he looked between the two women, very slight panic taking him over: after all, he'd seen the torture Shilloh had just gone through, and he wanted no part in it.

**OOO**

It wasn't as bad as Zach had initially feared, being drug around the mall and forced to try on pants and shirts. Angela had even handed him a new pair of shoes that she told him would work great with any of his outfits.

It was a little awkward, though, having them both look at him with assessing eyes as he would stand in front of them, some new button-up shirt or casual looking jeans on; waiting for them to tell him how he looked. He knew that neither of them were judging him in an unkind manner, but it was still judgement none-the-less, and he felt enough pressure that he couldn't help but stand with perfect posture throughout their _looks_.

He knew he wasn't the typically handsome male, didn't have a strong chiseled jaw or the appropriately broad but well-defined shoulders that society found pleasing; that didn't mean that he didn't feel some amount of pride in his physical appearance, though. And so it was, that whenever Shilloh or Angela would shake their heads at him and say that the outfit wasn't right, he couldn't help but feel a little stung, as if they were saying that he wasn't good-looking enough to pull off the acid-washed jeans or the bright Hawaiian shirt.

He liked Hawaiian shirts.

"You know, Zach, I think you would look absolutely phenomenal in _this_," Shilloh told him, holding up a soft brown zip-up hoodie, "pair it with those light-colored jeans Angela made you buy and any one of your t-shirts that _isn't_ Hawaiian or striped, and you've got a great outfit. Something you can wear when you ask Naomi if she wants to have lunch with you."

Zach frowned down at the article of clothing, wondering just how much he was going to have to buy today- he'd already purchased two pairs of pants, three shirts, and a pair of shoes.

"I was actually thinking to ask her out to coffee instead; it seemed a more stress-free option. That way, if it doesn't go well it would be easier for her to leave without feeling obligated to stay until the check had arrived," he didn't bother going into the changing room to try on the hoodie, simply peeled it off the hanger and slipped his arms into it, rolling his shoulders around to test if it would be too restricting of movement.

"That's very thoughtful. I'm sure coffee will go over perfectly though, and _then_ you can wear this when you ask her to lunch. Wear that graphic tee you had to wrestle from Angela's hands to buy, and your dark pants- it looks much more 'you.' It's important to give a good impression, of course, but you also want the other person to know who they're saying yes to," Shilloh said, nodding at the brown hoodie, then putting her hands on Zach's shoulders and forcing him to turn for her so she could see it at different angles.

"Yes, that makes sense, thank you or the advice. I ask others, but most seem to feel uncomfortable when I do; I believe I am going about it wrong," he said, resigning himself to the mild man-handling.

"Yeah well, don't get used to it, I'm not so good at relationships myself," Shilloh pulled the hoodie off of him, putting it back on the hanger, then said, "I think you need one size up in this, but otherwise it looks great, you should get it."

Zach sighed slightly, but nodded his head and reached for the same hoodie in a larger size, already cringing at the sizable dent in his savings this excursion had cost him.

**Sorry that it's another short one guys, but the next chapter should be the last one before we get to (tenuously) The Man In The Fallout Shelter. Hopefully. It might be more the next chapter is like this, and the one after is the **_**very super beginning **_** of The Man In The Fallout Shelter. But whatever.**

**I can't believe it's taken me this long to get to this point, I honestly can't. When I first started this story, (I sound like one of those people, you know: **_**when I was young**_**) it sprung from the idea of how Hodgins and Zach would react to insane driving on a country road. And I figured it'd only take, at most, 10,000 words to set everything up and get into the actual **_**plot**_** of the story, as well as to start writing about the cases. As it is, I'm almost 40,000 words in, haven't gotten to the Bones episodes yet, and still haven't begun to introduce my very thin plot; though there are small traces of it here and there, if you squint a bit.**

**Mostly, what I'm saying here, is thank you for sticking with me thus far, and for liking this story even when I haven't gotten to the good stuff yet. And let me tell you right now, based on the things I have planned, this is going to be a **_**long**_** story. **

**So yeah, thanks for staying with me, for all the reviews, the favorites, and the alerts; it helps me a lot, knowing that you all like it already, even when I feel like I'm still at the baby stages of this story. Hopefully that thought doesn't scare you all away.**


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